Born in Rugby on 27 May 1913, the son of Thomas Faulkner, a businessman, Faulkner was educated at Rugby School and Emmanuel College Cambridge, from which he went up to St Bartholomew's Hospital to do his clinical training. During the war he served in the RAMC, and on demobilisation returned to demonstrate anatomy and to study for the FRCS, and to specialise in plastic surgery. He won the Marks Fellowship in plastic surgery at East Grinstead, and became consultant plastic surgeon to the Royal Northern, St Charles' and the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospitals in London as well as to the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton. He was consultant plastic surgeon to HM Prison Commission, St Mary's Hospital Paddington and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Tom Faulkner was an accomplished artist, exhibiting in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. He wrote extensively on surgical repair following oesophago-pharyngectomy. He married Felicity Clutterbuck in 1948. They had one son. Tom died in February 1991.