Mr Donald Winstock passed away after a brief illness on 1 June at the age of 89, surrounded by his family. I first met Mr Winstock in 1972 while I was preparing for my final FDS examination when he gave a surgical demonstration at the Eastman Dental Hospital. Donald was born in 1924, the youngest of six children and brought up in East London to a family of immigrant Russian Jews. He studied dentistry at the Royal Dental Hospital obtaining his BDS in 1948 before doing medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital obtaining his MBBS at the age of 29 years in 1953. As a medical student he worked as a dentist and married his childhood sweetheart, Tess, who supported him without hesitation through 63 years of marriage. Most of his working life as a consultant in oral and maxillofacial surgery was spent at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, The Middlesex, Edgware General and Royal Dental Hospital in Leicester Square. He was an inspiring teacher. He obtained his FDSRCS in1959. Countless trainees benefitted by assisting him in the theatre and gaining surgical skills by watching his masterly incisions and wound closures. He was a stalwart among the few oral surgeons to sit the FRCS(OMFS) in maxillofacial surgery by examination in 1985 at the age of 60, when it was initially bestowed by the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh). He published widely on dental extractions in haemophilia and apical disease treated by retrograde surgical techniques. Donald loved visiting Commonwealth countries to offer voluntary services, both as a visiting surgeon and a teacher. A man with great surgical skills and integrity who could adapt to any theatre conditions with minimum equipment, he operated on many patients and achieved good outcomes, though often the cases had been listed as too advanced to operate. He retired from the NHS in 1989 after 30 years of service as a consultant to four hospitals in London. He loved the theatre, musicals and lying in the sun. He leaves behind his wife, Tess, three children, April, Grant and Adam, and five grandchildren. Both sons followed his footsteps in their respective medical careers.