Leo Lenaghan, the son of a farmer, was born in Creswick, Victoria, Australia, on 4 November 1930. He attended a primary school at Tourello, where the family had continuously farmed property since settling there in the early 1850's, and then St Patrick's College, Ballarat. He entered Melbourne University and graduated in 1955, being the fourth of his family to qualify in medicine. His eldest brother is a urologist; a twin brother is a general and vascular surgeon in Detroit and a sister is a rheumatologist. Leo was resident medical officer at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, for two years. After a period of postgraduate training in the UK, during which he obtained the FRCS in 1960, he joined the orthopaedic staff at St Vincent's Hospital in 1962 and secured the FRACS in orthopaedics in 1964. He also held appointments at the Austin Hospital and was a visiting specialist to the Repatriation Department and to the Williamstown Hospital. He was especially interested in the management of trauma and in joint replacement. Beyond his strictly surgical activities he developed a great interest in the processes and customs of the law, he enjoyed the drama of the court room and was much sought after for medico-legal opinions. He was an energetic, restless and gregarious man with a wide circle of friends. He never married and his main hobby was the collection of antiques. He is reported to have made a large and high quality collection of objets d'art and furniture of the Georgian period, and he was also much interested in painting and music. He died on 5 August 1982, at the early age of 51, from a rapidly growing cerebral tumour.