Stephen Power was born in Reading in 1902 the son of a general practitioner in Stamford Hill in North London. He was educated at St Ignatius College and the London Hospital Medical School, graduating MB, BS in 1925. He was appointed house surgeon and subsequently clinical assistant at the London and then continued his surgical training at Ancoats Hospital, Manchester and Selly Oak, in Birmingham. He obtained the London MS in 1930. His career was moulded by two famous surgeons, Russell Howard at the London Hospital and Cecil Joll (to whom he became first assistant) at the Miller General in Greenwich. He was appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital in 1936 and later to the Dreadnought and Eltham District Hospitals which he served with distinction and loyalty until his retirement in 1967. He joined the RAMC at the outbreak of the war, serving mainly in India as a senior surgical specialist reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel before being demobilised in 1945. He retained his military bearing and respect for punctuality throughout his life. His publications were mainly on urology, where he contributed modifications to prostatectomy, and he was the first to design a three-way irrigating urethral catheter. He also wrote three books, *Surgical technique* 1952, illustrated by his father who was a skilled amateur watercolour artist, *Surgical diagnosis* 1957, and *Surgeon at the bedside* 1962. He was a man of few words but forthright views. He retired to County Cork, where he enjoyed salmon fishing, and he took up horse-riding late in life, hunting with the Cork hunts until he was nearly 80. He died in Cork on 13 January 1988 after a short illness.