Maxwell Philip Ellis qualified in medicine in London and trained at University College Hospital. He eventually became surgeon-in-charge to the ENT department at the Central Middlesex Hospital, surgeon to the Royal National Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital and Dean of the Institute of Laryngology and Otology in London. He was a wing commander in the RAF volunteer reserve. At the College he was a Hunterian Professor, and he was a Fellow of University College London. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (and ex-President of the Section of Otology) and a Fellow of the Medical Society of London, serving as President and honorary treasurer trustee. He edited several books and published many papers on laryngeal surgery and cancers of the ear, nose and throat. He died on 12 December 1996.