Howard Livingstone Peake was born in Fianarantsoa, Madagascar, on 16 December 1901, the fourth child of George Henry Peake FRCS (Edinburgh) and Agnes Martha, née Fredoux. He was educated at Bournemouth Secondary School and Guy's Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1925 and after serving as house surgeon to R Davies-Colley was appointed resident surgical officer at St Olave's Hospital, Rotherhithe, and later to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, where he worked under M Fitzmaurice-Kelly. After passing the FRCS examination in 1929 he emigrated to East Africa and was appointed orthopaedic consultant to Nairobi Hospital. He was founder of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa in 1950 and eventually retired to pursue his hobbies of big-game hunting and photography. He died in 1987 and is survived by his wife Alice (née Greenwood) whom he married in 1937. There were two sons and one daughter.