Eric Ralph Davies, the son of Henry William Davies, a master printer and bookbinder, and of Louise Matilda (née Court), was born at Thornton Heath, Surrey, on 22 October 1908. He was educated at Steyning Grammar School, Sussex, and at Guy's Hospital where he won a scholarship and the Lubbock Prize for clinical pathology and two Golding Bird prizes for bacteriology. He played rugby for Guy's and Kent and later in life became keen on golf, shooting and fishing. After qualifying in 1939 he did resident appointments and was surgical registrar and surgeon in charge of the fracture clinic at Guy's before becoming medical superintendent and resident surgeon under the Emergency Medical Service at Guy's wartime annexe at Sevenoaks. He had been precluded from military service as a result of injuries received during the wartime bombing of Guy's Hospital. From 1943 to 1951 he worked first as assistant surgeon and then chief surgeon at the Anglo-Iranian Hospital, Abadan, Iran. Back in England in 1951-52 he held an honorary assistant surgeon appointment at St Mark's Hospital, London. From 1952 to 1972 he was a consultant surgeon in Calcutta and was awarded the OBE in 1967 for his services to the community in India. He married Pamela Alleyne (née Cradock), a Guy's nurse, in 1946, by whom there were two sons. At the time of his death on 10 September 1983 he was survived by his wife and sons, John and Peter.