Born 23 January 1866 at Wincanton, Somerset, the second son of Samuel Deanesly, wine merchant, and his wife, *née* Dowding. He was educated at King's School, Bruton, Somerset, and at University College Hospital, where he was vice-president of the medical society and served as house surgeon, house physician and obstetric assistant. He took first-class honours in forensic medicine at the London MB in 1887. Deanesly was appointed in 1893 house surgeon to the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire General Hospital, and from there till his retirement in 1931 identified himself with the medical and civic life of the town. He went into private practice in 1895, accepting at the same time the new post of honorary casualty officer at the hospital. He was appointed assistant surgeon in 1901, and in due course became surgeon, and later consulting surgeon, and was elected vice-president on his retirement. He first organized a thorough casualty service and was insistent on the proper treatment of wounds, especially of wounds of the hands, which are so frequent in the industrial population of the district. He evolved and taught an excellent technique, dissecting out after proper cleansing the whole surface of the wound however deep, closing it without stitches by a firm absorbent dressing and leaving it undisturbed for at least a week. He persuaded the governors to re-organize the staff of the hospital, offering suitable inducements to first-class specialists, instead of relying on the voluntary services of local practitioners; he also brought into being a pathological department, which was opened by Sir Clifford Allbutt, FRCP in 1914, and secured the appointment of William Boyd, afterwards professor at Toronto, as the first pathologist. The hospital, for which a Royal Charter was granted, became the monument of Deanesly's life and work. He was an excellent general surgeon with a special interest in the surgery of the renal tract: he was the first to describe the difference in ruptures of the urethra when caused by violence or by fracture of the pelvis. There were few branches of surgery, except that of the eye, in which he was not skilled. He wrote on hernia, prostatectomy, cerebellar abscess, abdominal pain, and the treatment of gastric ulcer. He was an original member of Moynihan's Provincial Surgical Club. Deanesly was a town councillor of Wolverhampton from 1901 till 1917. He married in 1898 Ida, daughter of Alderman John Marston of Wolverhampton, who survived him with two sons and four daughters. He retired in 1931 to Cheltenham, moving in 1940 to Llanbedr, Merioneth, North Wales, where he died on 31 March 1948, aged 82, and was buried at Llanbedr. He was a man of forthright personality with a mordant, ironic tongue. His professional and administrative ability was backed by wide cultivation, and he was well-read in history, philosophy, and the classics.