Born in London on 17 April 1874, the fourth child and third son of Joseph Edmunds, manufacturing dry-salter, and his wife Ann Stroud Swift. His parents were poor and on leaving school he worked for his father's business. His schoolmaster encouraged him to continue his education at night classes and he succeeded in entering King's College, London, where he won the University exhibition in zoology and scholarship in physiology, and graduated BSc. He then entered King's College Hospital medical school in 1896, and maintained himself by coaching and by winning the Sambrooke exhibition and other scholarships and prizes. At the intermediate MB examination he was placed first in materia medica and awarded a gold medal in physiology, and at the final MB, BS took honours in obstetrics and was awarded the University scholarship and gold medal in surgery. At King's College he served as demonstrator of physiology, and was elected a Fellow in 1931. At the Hospital he became Sambrooke surgical registrar 1906-10, senior surgical registrar and tutor 1910-12, assistant surgeon 1912, surgeon 1919, and consulting surgeon 1934. He was also surgeon to out-patients at the Paddington Green Children's Hospital, and surgeon to the Royal Northern Hospital. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Hunterian professor in 1926 and 1933. After qualifying he lived in chambers in Lincoln's Inn Fields with Archibald Reid (1871-1924), MRCS, and then became private assistant to William Watson Cheyne, after having been his house surgeon. Edmunds acquired consummate skill and speed in cutting and staining pathological specimens for Cheyne. From him he adopted the strictest Listerian antiseptic practice, for Cheyne had been Lister's assistant. Edmunds always used a strong cleansing mixture before operation, distrusting the attempts of later surgeons to obtain absolute asepsis. He liked simple instruments, did without needle-holders, and used sharp hooks instead of forceps for holding the tissues. He made his own instruments in a workshop at the top of his house, 57 Queen Anne Street. Edmunds devised a successful operation for hypospadias and several delicate plastic operations. During the war of 1914-18 he was a consulting surgeon to the Royal Navy with the rank of surgeon rear-admiral, and was created CB 1918. In the war of 1939-45 he came voluntarily out of retirement at the age of 66 to return to surgery at Cuckfield Hospital, Sussex, under the Emergency Medical Service. Edmunds married in 1911 Maud Dampier, daughter of M Stratford of Gloucester, who survived him but without children. After retiring he lived at Bramley Cottage, Charing, Kent, where he grew orchids and roses, and painted. He died in King's College Hospital on 29 November 1945, aged 71, and was cremated at Charing after a funeral service at King's College. Edmunds was a bearded man, of outspoken sincerity and honesty.. He did not care for sports and abhorred blood-sports. Publications:- *Glandular enlargement and other diseases of the lymphatic system*. London, 1908. W W Cheyne and F F Burghard, *Manual of surgical treatment*, 2nd edition, 1912-13, revised by Arthur Edmunds and T P Legg, 5 vols. An operation for hypospadias. *Lancet*, 1913, 1, 447. Pseudohermaphroditism and hypospadias. (Hunterian lecture, RCS.) *Lancet*, 1926, 1, 323. Unsuccessful appendicectomy (Hunterian lecture, RCS). *Lancet*, 1933, 2, 393.