Michael Cox was born in Camberley, Surrey, on 14 April 1922, the son of Colonel Michael Cox of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. From Bradfield School he went to Corpus Christi Cambridge, and then to St Thomas's Hospital, where he qualified in 1946. He did house appointments at St Thomas's and then his National Service in the RAMC. On demobilisation he returned to St Thomas's as registrar. passed the FRCS in 1951 and then changed from general surgery to otorhinolaryngology, becoming ENT registrar at St Thomas's and then senior registrar at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1962 he was appointed consultant otorhinolaryngologist at Portsmouth and Chichester, as well as the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst. After his retirement in 1987 he was able to enjoy his hobbies of gardening, fly fishing and antiques. Five years later he developed a carcinoma of the caecum which was sadly inoperable at diagnosis, and he died on 24 January 1992. He married Patsy, a radiographer, in 1958 and they had five children, Amanda, Andrew, Michael, Adrian and Desmond, one of whom became a nurse.