John Lloyd Provan was born on 9 August 1931 in Newport, England. His father was Andrew Lloyd, a chief chemist for the Milk Marketing Board, and his mother was Gwyneth Mary Evans. He attended Adams' Grammar School, Newport, Shropshire, from 1939 to 1945. From there he went to King's College School, Wimbledon, from 1945 to 1950 and then to University College, London, from 1950 to 1953. His medical training was at University College Hospital, London, where he was awarded the Goldsmid Entrance Exhibition in 1953. He qualified MRCS LRCP in 1956 and obtained the FRCS in 1961. He gained a BSc in anatomy in 1953 and qualified MB BS at London University in 1956 and MS London in 1968. In 1958 he married Margaret Elizabeth Russell and they had two daughters and a son. He trained under Professor R S Pilcher at University College Hospital and moved to Toronto in 1969, where he soon showed an interest in vascular surgery and developed a unit in the Wellesley Hospital. He was appointed staff surgeon in general and vascular surgery and chief of vascular surgery at the Wellesley Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Toronto. Away from work, he was a competitive sailor, an avid birdwatcher and a serious gardener. He also loved steam engines and model railways. He died of bowel cancer on 25 July 1996 survived by his second wife, Judy, five children and four grandchildren.