Sankar Panikkar was born in Manchester in 1924 and educated at Manchester Grammar School and the University of Manchester, qualifying in 1948. After house appointments he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps with a National Service Commission in 1949 and served as medical officer in the Parachute Regiment as well as at Chester Military Hospital. On demobilisation he held posts in the Manchester area, passing the DLO in 1951 and the FRCS in 1953. Four years later he was appointed consultant in ear, nose and throat surgery to the Blackburn and District Group of Hospitals. He was an active member of the Otorhinolaryngology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and became President of the North of England Otorhinolaryngology Society in 1980. In early life he represented his university at cricket, athletics and soccer, but later in life his main sporting interests were golf and squash. He died on 10 July 1987 and is survived by his wife, Margaret, and his daughters, Susie, Katie and Jane.