David James Adams was born in Liverpool on 1 March 1925, the son of William Adams, director of a building firm, and Alice Maud Stringfellow, part of a large extended family of practising Christians in Independent Methodism. An appendicectomy at the age of seven inspired him to become a surgeon, intending to become a medical missionary according to his father's wishes. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute where he was an outstanding athlete, captaining his school cricket and soccer Xls and gaining the Margaret Bryce Scholarship to the University of Liverpool Medical School. He qualified in 1949 and, after house jobs in Liverpool and a post as lecturer in anatomy, where he worked with R G Harrison on the circulatory system in rats, he joined the RNVR for his National Service. He served on HMS *Vanguard* from 1953 to 1954, and incidentally found time to study the thermal protection offered to naval life rafts by means of a coat of aluminium paint. He resumed surgical training at Broadgreen Hospital and took his FRCS in 1960. He was appointed consultant surgeon to the Wharfedale Hospitals in 1964, and was the founder member and Chairman of Wharfedale Medical Association. Outside medicine, his interests were in gardening and sport: he ran the London Marathon three time, raising over £6000 for local hospices. Always a committed Christian, he became a chairman and lay preacher to the Independent Methodist circuit and just before he died had completed a foundation course for the ministry in the Church of England. In 1960 he married Barbara, née Jasper, and they had six children. His son, William, followed his father into medicine and is a neuroradiologist. Adams died suddenly on 28 October 1993, survived by his wife and children, William, Richard, David, Matthew, Thomas and Mary.