Hamilton Ellis Quick was born in Sydney on 13 November 1882, and when he was 18 months old was brought over to Swansea where he spent most of the rest of his active life. He went to Swansea Grammar School and then to the Royal College of Science, South Kensington where he graduated BSc in 1902. His medical studies were carried out at St Bartholomew's Hospital where he qualified with both the MB BS degree and the Conjoint Diploma in 1906. In 1909 he took the FRCS and returned to Swansea to practise ophthalmology, being appointed ophthalmic surgeon to the General and Eye Hospital there. In the first world war he served with the 3rd Welsh Field Ambulance in Gallipoli, and was mentioned in dispatches. After demobilization he returned to Swansea and continued to serve in several neighbouring hospitals till he reached retiring age in 1947. In 1949 he retired completely and went to Reading where he lived with a daughter for the rest of his life. Quick was a quiet, reserved and studious person who devoted all his energies to his clinical work and associated professional activities - he was secretary and later chairman of the local division of the British Medical Association and to a life-long interest in natural history, especially malachology. He was president of the Conchological Society in 1941-42, and of the Malachological Society of London from 1950-53, contributing to the literature of the Linnaean Society, and an article on British snails to the *Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History)*. He had a great love for the Gower peninsula and also for the Isles of Scilly. In 1918 he married Adelaide Ruth Hollins, and they enjoyed a very happy life together till she died in 1946. They had two daughters, one of whom, Mrs Mary Thomas, made a home for her father in Reading where he died aged 84 on 23 May 1967.