Ralph Manfred Antrum was born 9 January 1954. He studied medicine at London University and trained at St Mary’s Hospital, graduating MB, BS in 1977. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1983 and worked as a house surgeon at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. After spending some time in the USA as a research fellow at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Ohio, he returned to the UK and was appointed senior house officer to the Leicester Royal Infirmary and General Hospital. Following that he moved to Leeds where he worked at the General Infirmary, the York District Hospital and Chapel Allerton Hospital. His final consultant post was at the Bradford Royal Infirmary.