John Ormerod Harrison qualified in medicine from Cambridge University in 1932 and became a Fellow of the College in the same year. He trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital where he was house surgeon and orthopaedic house surgeon. He then became senior house surgeon at Leicester Royal Infirmary before becoming consultant in obstetrics, gynaecology and urology to the West Norfolk and King's Lynn General Hospital. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons. When he retired he moved to Reading in Berkshire and he died on 8 November 1992.