Patrick Leonard James, known as ‘Jimmie’, was a consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the London Hospital. He was born in Cuffley, Hertfordshire on 7 January 1926. His mother’s maiden name was Hill. He left school at 16 and went to Regent Street Polytechnic in London. He then trained as a dentist, qualifying in 1948. He carried out his National Service in the Royal Air Force from 1951, and went on to qualify as a doctor, gaining the conjoint examination in 1956. He became a fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1959. He held posts at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, where he worked with Sir Archibald McIndoe, the pioneering plastic and reconstructive surgeon, on a few occasions, although his mentor was Sir Terence Ward. James was a fellow at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan in 1962. In 1963 he was appointed as a consultant at the London Hospital, where he worked to improve and enlarge the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery. He was also an honorary civilian consultant to the RAF. In 1966 he was part of a medical delegation which flew to Cuba to meet Fidel Castro. In 1985, at the age of 59, he took the examination for his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He retired from the NHS in 1991. James died on 14 April 2012 at the age of 86. He was survived by his wife Jean (née Knight), who he married in 1954, two daughters and a son.