Born in Cracow, Poland on 16 April 1913 and educated at the Jewish High School there, he entered the medical school at Strasbourg in 1931 and qualified MD in 1938. On the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the Polish forces in France and after the collapse in 1940 escaped to England, where he joined the 1st Polish Armoured Division and returned to France in 1944 as part of the British Liberation Army advancing through Normandy, Belgium, Holland and, ultimately, Germany, where he remained until demobilised in 1949 with the rank of Major. On returning to England he held successive house appointments at Harrow, Woolwich War Memorial, Hampstead general, Putney and both branches of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. After obtaining his FRCS, which he did at the age of 42, he became orthopaedic registrar at West London, registrar at Birmingham Accident Hospital, and then senior registrar and lecturer in orthopaedics at Leeds. From 1960 to 1962 he was lecturer in orthopaedics at the University of Malaya at Singapore, and moved to Hong Kong in July 1962 as orthopaedic consultant to the Government and was appointed to Kowloon Hospital. Twice in his short life he had to make a fresh start in a strange country and learn a new language. He was a man of unbounded energy and enthusiasm with an overwhelming sense of duty. His parents and all his close relations were murdered by the Germans. His name was originally spelled "Friedmann". He died on 16 February 1963, quite suddenly, while on a visit to Macao, at the age of 49, leaving a widow and a young son.