Robin Sudlow was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Southend Hospital. He was born in Enfield, north London, on 25 January 1948 to Stanley Sudlow, a die caster, and Bessy Sudlow née Howard, who worked in the local pharmacy. His sister Roxanne, known as Roxy, was born four years later. He went to Enfield Grammar School and at an early age set his heart on becoming a doctor. Robin had to work hard to get into medical school, gaining a place at the second attempt after working in the school lab for a year. While he was rightly proud of what he achieved, he was saddened that a changing education system prevented children from his social background entering the world of medicine. He started at the London Hospital Medical School in September 1967. In a piece Robin dictated many years later, he remembered his house officer training and being influenced by Richard Earlam, Brian Roper, John Blandy and Gerald Tresider. He was subsequently a senior house officer at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital under the orthopaedic surgeons Lawrence Plewes and Martin Foss. Here he worked in the accident and emergency department with Derek Boston, who was to become a consultant colleague at Southend; they both gained considerable experience with a wide spectrum of cases. Robin then decided to take a GP locum post in Catalina, Newfoundland, Canada, where he faced everything from putting in a tracheotomy for a young man who had blown his nose off with a shot gun while snow was cleared for a plane to take off to take him to hospital (he survived) to weaning patients off a cocktail of drugs the previous doctor had dispensed from his own pharmacy. He then camped around north America and Mexico for five months before returning home. Despite the threat that there would be no job to return to, he was back at the London Hospital within 48 hours. As a registrar with David Ritchie and John Blandy he held a two-year experimental teaching post rotating between surgical specialties, which enabled him to gain his FRCS. Having worked with the orthopaedic surgeons Michael Freeman, Brian Roper and John Fixsen, he applied to do the orthopaedic rotation at the London. This involved working at Black Notley, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and a six-month stint in Johannesburg. A glitch in the rotation led him to Barts to work with Alan Lettin and John Fixsen, then back to the London. There was a scarcity of consultant posts, so he was told he should ‘take any job that was offered’. He found a post at Southend Hospital as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and began working there in January 1985. He had been prepared to go anywhere as a consultant, but Southend was ideal – near the sea for sailing and within an hour of London, for the theatre and opera. He joined Chris Spivey, a colleague from the London, and Derek Boston of Luton and Dunstable days. With only three in the department, they had to be Jacks-of-all-trades and were thankful for the breadth of their training. Over the next few years Robin was involved in recruiting and training, often with links back to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore and Tim Briggs. Registrars often filled consultant posts a few years down the line and made a working team that Robin was proud to be part of. The chief executive was very supportive of increasing the number of posts, and the surgeons in the department gradually specialised. Robin was able to do more hip replacements, but, linking back to his work with Michael Freeman, he refused to get involved with the Birmingham hip, having previously done research on the effects of ‘metal on metal’. Robin’s time assessing and interviewing for the Royal College of Surgeons of England was frustrated by a lack of understanding centrally of the experience that had been gained at peripheral hospitals. He lamented the move to ‘patients should be seen by a consultant’, believing it eroded teaching opportunities, practical training and the sharing of expertise. From his time with Brian Roper and John Fixsen, he developed paediatric orthopaedics. He would assess hemiplegic gait inpatients with cerebral palsy and use botulinum toxin, mainly into hypertonic gastrocnemius muscle, to improve the gait pattern. In Johannesburg, he had experience with Louis Solomon operating on club feet, so expanded on this and introduced the Ponseti method of plastering and managing club feet from birth. Robin escaped from work in the Rotary and by being a mason. He was secretary in various masonic lodges. He was involved with the Rotary Clubs of Rochford and of Thorpe Bay and particularly helped with international support, delivering wheelchairs to several African countries including Zimbabwe, Uganda and Lesotho. Robin loved his work and really appreciated the teams which supported one another and created such a happy work environment. After he retired, he often made the comment: ‘How lucky I was to come through when I did.’ Robin died on 24 February 2021 from a pulmonary embolus. He was 73. He is much missed by his wife Rosemary, whom he met at the Christian Union at the London Hospital where she was training in paediatric physiotherapy, their three children, Richard, Michael and Anne Marie and seven grandchildren, particularly the two he helped home tutor through the covid epidemic.