Richard Langford was born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa, on 30 October 1918, the son of Cyril Archibald Rowley Langford, a senior schools' inspector, and Constance, née Etheridge, an art teacher and daughter of a Norfolk farmer. His grandfather and great-grandfather were both military surgeons, the former studying under Sir Morrell Mackenzie and the latter settling in South Africa in 1806. Richard was educated at Rondebosch High School, Templeton School, Bedford, SA and the University of Cape Town medical school, where he qualified in December 1940. After house appointments at the Sondermater Military Hospital he joined the South African armed forces and served in the Middle East and Italy from 1941 to 1945 with the rank of acting major. After the war he came to England to continue his surgical studies and worked at Southend General Hospital under Rodney Maingot and Donald Barlow. After taking his FRCS in 1948 he returned to Southern Africa and was later appointed consultant surgeon at the Central Hospital in Salisbury, Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe). He also became honorary surgeon to the Rhodesian armed forces and police. In 1952 he married Kathleen Mary Lay and they had two daughters, Jean and Anne, and a son, Richard, who subsequently became a radiologist in Pietermaritzburg, Natal. His outside sporting interests were numerous and included golf, tennis, hockey, squash and baseball, at which he represented Cape Town University as an undergraduate. He died on 4 June 1989, survived by his wife and children.