John Groves was a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Free, Hampstead General and New End hospitals in London. He studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying MB BS in 1947. He gained his FRCS in 1953. Prior to his consultant appointments, he was a house surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital, a senior house officer in the ENT department at Westminster Hospital, and a senior ENT registrar back at St Mary’s. He was a member of the British Association of Otolaryngologists and an examiner for the diploma in otolaryngology. With John Ballantyne he co-edited the second (1965), third (1971) and fourth (1979) editions of W G Scott’s *Diseases of the ear, nose and throat* (London, Butterworth). John Groves died on 12 July 2010.