Richard Juniper was a consultant in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. He was born on 11 April 1938, the second son of Leonard Alfred Vey Juniper and Edna Amy Juniper née Pudan. Leonard ran a wholesale game and poultry business in Smithfield market. Richard had early memories of watching doodlebug flying bombs when the family later lived in London. He was educated at Highgate School, where he became head pupil and gained school colours in cricket, fives, football and athletics. He held the school record for the 220-yard sprint until track measurements went metric. He was a talented musician, playing piano and violin, a passion that persisted throughout life. Winning a General Dental Council scholarship, he studied dentistry at Guy’s, where he won the Newland Pedley prize for the most outstanding clinical student and the Evelyn Sprawson prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of England for gaining the top marks in the LDS examination. Having decided on a career pathway in oral and maxillofacial surgery, he then studied medicine, also at Guy’s, qualifying in 1967. An unusual student achievement was getting arrested for breach of the peace on his way to a Guy’s/St Thomas’s rugby match, for which he and others were each fined 10 shillings. There followed registrar and senior registrar posts at the Eastman Dental Hospital under the tutelage of Homer Killey, who kindled an interest in the diagnosis and management of atypical facial pain, which became a lifelong area of expertise. He then became a senior registrar at the prestigious maxillofacial unit at East Grinstead, headed by Sir Terence Ward. There he met Honor, daughter of consultant orthodontist Dennis Glass, and they were married within seven months, remaining a devoted couple for the rest of his life. The impetus for the hasty nuptials was that he had been posted to Kaduna, Nigeria, starting just five weeks after the wedding. At that time, in 1971, the senior registrars from East Grinstead were seconded to Kaduna to help out in the aftermath of the recent Biafran civil war, where they gained experience in the latest management of gunshot wounds and other advanced pathologies. A year after his return from Nigeria, Richard was appointed as a consultant in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. This was a single-handed post with just one senior house officer and an arduous on-call commitment. Richard soon established himself as a skilled, compassionate surgeon and a gifted teacher and trainer, a great ambassador for his specialty, gaining huge respect from his colleagues and from referring medical and dental practitioners as well as his patients. Ten years later, in 1983, he moved to the John Radcliffe Hospital at Oxford, joining John Rayne, former vice dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery and vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Together they ran an outstanding department and training unit. Richard developed particular clinical interests in facial pain and in the understanding and treatment of disorders of the temporomandibular joint. He gained a wide reputation in both areas, publishing some 45 papers and textbook chapters and giving over 50 lectures by invitation at home and overseas as well as conducting quality research. His work was recognised within his specialty by the awards of both the members prize and the president’s prize of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS). In 1987 he was awarded a Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, his lecture being entitled ‘Temporomandibular joint. A detailed appraisal of the operation of meniscoplasty.’ Apart from his clinical commitments, he engaged fully with professional bodies such as the Faculty of Dental Surgery (a board member from 1989 to 1996), the British Dental Association (chairman of the regional committee for hospital dental services from 1986 to 1989), BAOMS (a council member from 1982 to 1986 and 1989 to 1992; honorary secretary from 1983 to 1986), the Royal Society of Medicine (council secretary, vice president of the section of odontology) and was a member and vice chairman of the Specialty Advisory Committee on Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine (from 1982 to 1986 and 2000 to 2003). After his retirement from clinical practice in 1998 he continued as director of postgraduate dental education in Oxford for a further five years. On the lighter side he was a member of the Oral Surgery Club of Great Britain and the Oral Surgery Study Group, both of which took him and Honor to dozens of interesting destinations at home and abroad, cementing lifelong professional friendships. Outside of work, Richard was a man of many talents, all of which occupied him throughout his retirement. His love of music was fulfilled in his active role in the Benson Choral Society. His love of cabinet and furniture making saw him reach a professional standard. He was a keen gardener and prize-winning member of his allotment group and a keen member of his local walking group. He completely re-wired his own first large house in the Oxford area at a time when it was legal to do so. Stemming from his father’s occupation, for 20 years he was court assistant of the Worshipful Company of Poulters of London, becoming master of that livery company in 1994. Richard was always a relaxed, smiling, sociable man who mixed and made friends easily. His conversation was always easy, and he and Honor were the most generous hosts. In the last years of his life, he bore a sequence of debilitating illnesses with huge fortitude and optimism. With increasing mobility issues, he insisted on using a powered wheelchair to continue his involvement with his choir and walking group – whatever the difficulty he would find a way round it. Richard died on 18 October 2024 aged 86. He was survived by his wife Honor, two talented children Matthew and Zoe, and four adored and adoring grandchildren Isla, Phoebe, Jake and Lara. At the moving service of thanksgiving to celebrate his life, Dorchester Abbey was packed with family, friends and colleagues spanning seven decades of a life well lived.