John Samuel William Chambers was born in Southampton on 1 July 1926, the son of Samuel Bacon Chambers and his wife Mary Ann née Carey. He studied medicine at Cambridge University and trained at University College Hospital, London. After house jobs at St James’ Hospital, Balham and serving as a temporary surgeon lieutenant in the RNVR, he worked at the Royal South Hants Hospital and was a registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at Southampton General Hospital. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1959 and became a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Doncaster. In 1950 he married Noelle Gwynedd née Strange in the New Forest, Hampshire, and they had two daughters, Emma Gwynedd Mary and Sarah, and a son, Simon. He died in January 2017 at the age of 90 in Perth, Western Australia and was survived by his wife and children. His daughter Emma (born 1 March 1964 in Doncaster), a well known television actress, died on 21 February 2018 of a heart attack at the early age of 53.