John Conrad Neely was born in Bromley, Kent on 29 March 1901, the son of William Neely, a stationer and Clara Rebecca, née Cope. He was educated at Hodder School, Stoneyhurst College and Hertford College, Oxford, before entering Guy's Hospital Medical School for clinical studies. He qualified in 1927 and after joining the Royal Air Force in the following year he gained his wings as a pilot. He pursued his postgraduate studies in ophthalmology and before the outbreak of war passed both the DO and the DOMS. In 1940 he was promoted to Wing-Commander and posted to the Middle East. Two years later while serving in Singapore he was mentioned in dispatches for his careful surgical technique which enabled him to repair traumatic squints in airmen who had been hit by shrapnel. He passed the Oxford DM in 1945 and was appointed consultant in ophthalmology to the Royal Air Force Central Medical Establishment from 1950 to 1959. He was promoted to Air Commodore in 1950 and to Air Vice-Marshal in 1955. He passed the FRCS in 1958 and retired from the Royal Air Force in the following year. He built up the speciality of ophthalmology in the Royal Air Force and achieved high prominence both in the Service and in the Ophthalmology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine where he was a member of Council and later Vice-President. He was appointed Honorary Surgeon to the King in 1951. He married Marjorie Bramley in 1938 and she died from malignant melanoma in 1964. He married Roma McKechnie, widow of Air Commodore McKechnie, GC two years later. In his early years he was an enthusiastic rugby player but after his retirement to Eastbourne became captain of the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club. He was a devout Catholic and in his role as a member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul despite failing health in later years he continued to visit hospital wards in order to meet and encourage patients. He died on 2 June 1989 aged 88.