Henzell Howard Dummere came from a family of doctors, his father, Howard Howse Dummere MRCS, four uncles and his brother were all medical men, as was his father-in-law. One of his uncles, Neville Howse, had a distinguished career: gaining his FRCS, he emigrated to Australia at the age of twenty-eight, won the VC during the Boer War, became Surgeon-General in the first world war and was knighted. (see *Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England*, volume 3, page 407.) Howard was born on 6 October 1885 at Norton Woodseats near Sheffield, the eldest of a family of four. When he was three years old the family moved to Brasted, near Sevenoaks in Kent, about two miles from Chartwell, where his father bought a practice. Howard was educated at Sevenoaks, and at the London Hospital where he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1910. He then went as house surgeon to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. When war broke out in 1914 he obtained a commission at the outset and served right through the following four terrible years. He was awarded the MC for conspicuous bravery on active service in France in leaving the trenches and rescuing five wounded men, one by one, under fire. He rose to the rank of Major, RAMC, though he nearly died from typhoid, correctly diagnosed by Charles Wilson, afterwards Lord Moran, who had him speedily removed to hospital from the front line. Also, towards the end of the war he narrowly escaped death by drowning, when in a troop ship which was torpedoed in the. Bay of Biscay. His personal belongings were all lost. He obtained the FRCS in 1920, went into practice at King's Lynn with his younger brother Beresford Dummere, and was appointed surgeon to the West Norfolk Hospital. Howard Dummere was an outstanding sportsman, playing excellent tennis and cricket, as a young man; later he concentrated on golf and won many cups. In 1934 Howard Dummere married Mavis Janet Grant, whose father had been in general practice in London. Dummere set up in general practice at Hitchin in 1935, and was appointed to the staff of the North Herts and South Bedfordshire Hospital, where besides the usual general surgery, he dealt with injuries and fractures and with urological cases. In due course Dummere was appointed consultant surgeon to the North Herts Hospital, and also to Letchworth Cottage Hospital, and the Lister Hospital, Hitchin. He was Medical Superintendent of the Lister Hospital 1950-54, and in 1949-58 he served on the Luton & Hitchin Management Committee where his experience and common sense were of the greatest help, at a time when the hospitals were undergoing many changes with the development of the National Health Service. After retiring in 1954 he devoted himself to gardening, but served on committees for a few years. He underwent prostatectomy at the age of seventy-five; then in 1968 he developed a carcinoma of the rectum. His general condition was not conducive to a major operation; knowing all about the disease and its likely course, Dummere accepted it philosophically; his outstanding characteristic was imperturbability. He died on 28 August 1969 in the Lister Hospital, Hitchin. His wife, Mavis, whom he married in 1934, survived him.