John Nevile Aston was born in Cheltenham on 4 March 1919 and educated at Monkton Coombe School where he was distinguished academically and as an oarsman. In 1937 he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College where he qualified in 1942 and became house surgeon there for six months. He was then commissioned into the RAMC, serving first as Regimental Medical Officer with the 7th Green Howards and taking part in the invasion of Sicily and Italy as part of the 51st Division. Later he was transferred to the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards with the rank of Surgeon-Captain and landed in Normandy on D-Day, travelling on to Berlin. On demobilisation in October 1946 he returned to Bart's as supernumerary surgical registrar and became demonstrator in anatomy in 1947. He continued his surgical training as resident surgical officer at the Isle of Wight County Hospital in 1949, orthopaedic registrar at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in 1950 and to Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, from 1952 to 1955. He then returned to Bart's as senior orthopaedic registrar in 1955 and when Mr L S Higgs retired in 1958 John Aston was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital and Chailey Heritage Hospital and School. He was also honorary consulting orthopaedic surgeon to Notley Hospital. John Aston was a thoughtful surgeon with fine judgement based on the detailed assessment of his patients and a wide knowledge of orthopaedics. He had particular skill in caring for children with a variety of disabilities; they had complete confidence and trust in him. As an operator he was gentle, neat, precise and expeditious - a perfectionist in the best sense. His most striking personal characteristics were his sincerity, kindness, modesty and loyalty. John Aston was universally liked and respected. In addition to family activities out of doors, notably walking and scrambling in Wales, his hobbies were watercolour painting, photography and building model steam locomotives from components he made himself. He contributed a number of papers and chapters of books and was the author of *A short textbook of orthopaedics and traumatology for students*, embellished with his own line drawings. The book proved very popular and was translated into French, Italian and Spanish. He was working on a second edition (compiled by a colleague) when he was afflicted by an incapacitating, progressive illness, this ending tragically a career of achievement and great promise. He died on 9 May 1979. John Aston married Marguerite, in 1947, a trained nurse at Bart's who became a sister in the operating theatres there. They had a daughter who also became a nurse at Bart's and two sons.