John Charles Sandeman was an orthopaedic surgeon at Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals on the Wirral. Born on 10 January 1929 in Umtata, South Africa, he was the son of Ian Roberts, an insurance broker, and his wife Marie Jessie née Hughes. He was educated at Durban High School which he attended with an Edwin Swales scholarship. At Witwatersrand University he studied medicine, graduating MB, BCh in 1953 and winning the David Lurie medal for surgery. After house jobs at the Johannesburg General Hospital he came to the UK and studied at Liverpool University, where he won the Lady Jones fellowship. He married Eileen Hilda Rouse, a doctor, on 16 January 1954 in South Africa and they had two sons and a daughter. Outside medicine he enjoyed playing squash and sailing. He died on 28 January 2018 aged 89.