John Sowray was a professor of oral surgery at King’s College Hospital, London. He was born in Gillingham in Kent on 24 March 1927, the son of John Sowray and Edith Mabel Sowray née Mellon. In August 1944 he volunteered for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and qualified as a service pilot. After the Second World War, he started studying dentistry at the Royal Dental Hospital and qualified in 1953. As a dental student he was awarded the Alfred Woodhouse scholarship and the Dolamore, pathology and local anaesthetics prizes. Following a resident dental house post at St George’s Hospital, London, he began studying medicine at St George’s Hospital Medical School, supporting himself by working part-time as a dentist. He qualified with the conjoint examination in January 1959. At medical school he was awarded an Allingham scholarship in surgery. He then held a nine-month appointment as a dental registrar before working as a house officer in ENT and ophthalmology and as a casualty officer at St George’s. In April 1962 he was appointed as a senior registrar in oral surgery at the National Dental Hospital, rotating to the Eastman in May 1963, and in the same year gaining his fellowship of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In September 1964 he was appointed as a senior lecturer and honorary consultant at King’s College Hospital Dental School, where he remained until his retirement. In 1972 he became a professor of oral surgery. At King’s he established a well-regarded rotation for registrars and senior registrars with the Queen Victoria Hospital at East Grinstead, eventually including the Royal Surrey County Hospital at Guildford. He undertook research into local anaesthetic agents and their effects on the cardiovascular system and was the first surgeon in the UK to carry out a mandibular symphyseal osteotomy. He was invited to operate in hospitals around the world including in Malaysia and Iran. He co-authored *Local analgesia in dentistry* (Bristol, J Wright, 1970) and contributed chapters to many other textbooks. In 1981 he established the University Teachers of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, which he chaired for many years. He ran very popular annual scientific meetings for representatives of the UK dental schools. In 1988 the Academic Advisory Committee in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was established to promote high standards in academic oral surgery. Sowray was elected chairman of this committee, which gained representation on the Specialty Advisory Committee on Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine and established links with other professional organisations. In 1954 he married Gwyneth Mair Riley. Sowray died on 10 December 2015 in London. He was 88.