Born 11 April 1878 in a legal family he was educated at Highgate School. He had his clinical training at King's College Hospital, then still in Clare Market behind the Royal College, and served as a house surgeon there and at the Royal Free Hospital. He joined the Sudan Medical Service in 1907 when it was only three years old, following the example of his friend Edward Smyth Crispin MRCS, whom he succeeded as Director of the Service in 1922. From 1919 he had charge of the Blue Nile province at Wad Medani, where cotton growing was rapidly increasing. During the eleven years of his directorship the work of his Service grew fourfold, and the area under medical control was doubled, in spite of the world trade slump of 1929-31. His greatest contribution was in the field of education. He was successful in raising a large sum of money to build and endow the Kitchener Medical School at Khartoum, which was opened in February 1924. He also arranged for the annual visits of assessors from the Royal Colleges at home to keep the standards of the final examinations at Khartoum up to the highest level. He was decorated with the Order of the Nile and created a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. He did not take up practice when he came home in 1933, but during the war of 1939-45 he was an inspector of first aid posts for air-raid casualties throughout London. He died at his home 15 Latymer Court, London W6, on 11 February 1960 after several years of failing health, aged 82; his wife survived him. Atkey was a vigorous man fond of outdoor games, particularly polo and tennis. He took up flying, but after many successful flights with his wife, who was a keen airwoman herself, he made a crash-landing in Tanganyika when trying to fly from Cairo to the Cape.