Colin Palmer was born in China in 1929. Walter Attwell Lynch Palmer (1892-1975), his father, worked for the Shanghai municipal police force before a career with the Asiatic Petroleum Company. In the early 1920’s his mother, Lillian Emily née Burton, travelled out to China for their wedding. Colin studied medicine at London University and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, graduating in 1952. After house jobs at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, he passed the fellowship of the college in 1962. Appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Sheffield AHA, he was also an honorary clinical lecturer in ophthalmology at Sheffield University. He was a member of the North of England Ophthalmological Society. On 16 April 2018 he died in Sheffield aged 89 and was survived by his wife Jill and sons Christopher and Simon.