Educated at University College Hospital Medical School, where he won a university scholarship in physiology when he qualified in 1907 and the Atkinson Morley surgical scholarship in 1908. After holding resident posts at University College Hospital and St Peter's Hospital for Stone he was elected to the staff of both hospitals and was ultimately surgeon to St Peter's and consulting surgeon for genito-urinary diseases at University College Hospital. He pursued his surgical work with distinction and gave particular care to his students and hospital patients, but cared little for private practice. He was at heart a scientist and field-naturalist. While still a student he frequented the pathology department of the Zoological Gardens; later at St Peter's he carried through a valuable research on the nervous mechanism of micturition. He was uncommonly well-read in the literature of anatomy and physiology, and was a regular visitor to the College library in search of out of the way German books and articles by the older writers in these fields. He also had a wide and deep knowledge of botany, zoology, and comparative anatomy. Barrington was a member of the Physiological Society and of the Société internationale d'Urologie. At society meetings he could demolish an ill-founded hypothesis, but he was generous of his own knowledge and ready to admit ignorance and to explore the background of any subject which he thought he ought to study. All who got past his shy, harsh manner held him in affection and admiration. He often spent an evening in animated conversation at the Athenaeum, and equally enjoyed a day's shooting or sailing for the opportunity of observing wild-life. His informed enthusiasm on these occasions was an inspiration to his companions. His tall figure and brisk movements were long familiar in the parts of London where he lived and worked, for he set no store by appearances, never wore a hat or great-coat, and always walked; he was a well-known figure at the Athenaeum. During the second world war he organised a large genito-urinary service at the Emergency Medical Service hospital at Colindale. He had previously lived at 10 Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, and after the war settled at 14A Upper Wimpole Street. He died suddenly on 23 March 1956. A memorial service was held at St Pancras Church on 19 April 1956. He left £1000 each to the Severn Wildfowl Trust, the Ray Society, the British Ornithologists Union, and the libraries of the Athenaeum Club, the Linnean Society and the Zoological Society. Publications: The nervous mechanism of micturition. *Quart J exper Physiol* 1914, 8, 33. The relation of the hind-brain to micturition. *Brain* 1921, 44, 23.