It was probably because of his early life as the son of a medical missionary in Burma that from the age of four Peter Gurney was determined to become a doctor. Born in England on 23 September 1937, he travelled when he was two with his parents to Panglong in Burma. Then, just managing to escape capture by the Japanese during the war and surviving cerebral malaria, after a spell in India and a long and dangerous journey, he eventually arrived back in England in 1943 and the family settled in the West Country. Peter was educated at Monkton Combe School and graduated in medicine from the University of Bristol in 1960, where he met his future wife Jenny, having persuaded her to leave her course in physiotherapy and study medicine instead! Following qualification, he took posts in general surgery, orthopaedics and tropical medicine, obtaining a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine with a view to working as a medical missionary like his father. He joined the Red Sea Mission Team, a Christian volunteering organisation, and in 1963 went to Peshawar, Pakistan and participated in eye camps. Over the next few years he worked in clinics and hospitals in Aden, Yemen, Eritrea and Ethiopia and learned Arabic. He went back to England on several occasions, during which time he took and passed the diploma in ophthalmology and the diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and also got married. The worsening political situation in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa persuaded him to bring his wife and three children back to England in 1972. Having decided on a career in ophthalmology, he took the primary fellowship in 1973 and was awarded the Hallett prize and he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1976. He gained valuable ophthalmic experience in Southampton and in a joint senior registrar appointment between Moorfields Eye Hospital and the Royal Berkshire Hospital, specialising particularly in conditions affecting the retina, such as diabetes, vascular problems and age-related macular disease. He is remembered at Reading for his integrity and mature outlook on life and as ‘a most congenial colleague and unfailingly supportive in clinic and operating theatre’. Peter was appointed as a consultant ophthalmic surgeon for Sandwell and Dudley Area Health Authority in 1981, where he continued to combine his interest in diseases of the retina and choroid with his general ophthalmic work. He was described by colleague as ‘a good and meticulous clinician and a good surgeon’. He retired from full time service in 1998. A devout Christian all his life, Peter contributed several articles to the *Journal of Creation* on the anatomy and physiology of the eye, including challenging the comment of Richard Dawkins that the retina was badly designed, by riposting with the observation that ‘The eye continues to be the thorn in the flesh of evolutionists and to reveal the emptiness of their sophistry.’ He suffered from poor health during the last few years of his life and died on 16 June 2017 aged 79. He was survived by his wife, three children and seven grandchildren.