Gerry Kilcoyne was born on 24 January 1927 in Glasgow to a general practitioner father, Dr Patrick Kilcoyne and his wife Rita, née McNulty. He was educated at Clongowes College Dublin, the National University of Ireland, Wood College and University College, Dublin. He held house appointments at St Laurence's Hospital and was later surgical registrar at Mansfield and King's Mill Hospital, senior registrar in ENT at the Royal Infirmary, Sheffield, and was finally appointed consultant at High Wycombe Hospital in 1964. There, together with the late Esmé Hadfield, he played an active part in bringing the service up to a high standard, and later served as an authoritative member of the medical committee. A handsome, tall, distinguished looking man, always elegantly dressed, he stood out in any gathering and was a keen traveller and gourmet. He was secretary of the Section of Otology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1982-3, President of the Amersham and Chesham Hard of Hearing Club, and carried out an important study into adenocarcinoma of the nose, which affected workers in the local furniture industry. He married Mary, née Staunton, in 1961, and they had a son, Peter, and three daughters, Margaret, Rosemary and Angela. He died on 11 December 1995, from adenocarcinoma of the lung.