Peter John Fenn was a general surgeon at Maidstone Hospital. He was born on 6 May 1930 in Penge, London and spent his childhood in the Bromley area, attending Bromley Grammar School. As a child, he watched the Battle of Britain going on above his head and this sparked his first love, of aircraft. On commencing his two-year National Service in 1949 he joined the RAF, where he trained as a fighter pilot. At the end of his National Service, he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve, in which he remained until 1958. He did his medical training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School from 1951 to 1958 (and always modestly attributed his success at the interview to his attending in full RAF pilot’s uniform). In 1969, he gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and a year later of the English College. In 1970, he became a senior registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and to Coventry Walsgrave hospitals. In 1974, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Maidstone, initially working at the West Kent and Preston Hall hospitals. He was a key member of the team who worked on the design and commissioning of the new Maidstone Hospital, which opened in 1983. As the senior general surgeon, he undertook the role of surgical director for a period of time. During his directorship, laparoscopic general surgery appeared as an exciting new technique that his younger colleagues embraced with enthusiasm. Whilst offering them every support, he felt that this was best considered a young person’s game. He retired from practice in 1994. He occupied his retirement with numerous interests, including obtaining, through part-time study, two further degrees – in history and in archaeology – from the University of Kent. He also travelled widely. He died on 15 March 2019 at the age of 88 and was survived by his wife Jennifer, a former Barts nurse whom he married 1960, three sons and 10 grandchildren.