Roger Mortimer Tothill was a dental surgeon at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. He was born on 25 August 1929. His father, Gilbert Tothill, medical superintendent of Tokanui Hospital, was one of the first professionally qualified psychiatrists in New Zealand. His mother was Alicia Maud Tothill née Rose. Tothill studied dentistry at Otago and qualified with a BDS in 1953. In 1955 he sailed to the UK. He gained his fellowship of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1964. He was married twice. In 1964 he married Rosalind Elaine Morrison and in 1978 he married Jacqueline M Chubb née Morris. He had a son, Guy Mortimer, by his second wife. Tothill died on 6 February 2010. He was 80.