Potter was born on 27 September 1929 in Manchester, the son of James Henry Francis Potter, a wholesale tobacconist, and Marion, née Knott. He was educated at the South Manchester Grammar School, The King's School, Macclesfield, and Manchester University Medical School, qualifying MB ChB in 1954. In 1955 he married Miss Newbold. After qualification and early house appointments he specialised in oto-rhino-laryngology and held registrarships in his specialty at the Ear Nose and Throat Infirmary, Liverpool, at Warrington General Hospital and the Victoria Hospital, Blackpool, before becoming consultant ENT surgeon to the Barrow-in-Furness Hospital Group. He published papers in the *Journal of Laryngology and Otology* on dysphagia in myasthenia gravis and on the surgical treatment of hemifacial spasm. He was a keen golfer, fell walker and gardener. He died before May 1993, survived by his wife and three sons.