Gordon Fordyce trained in dentistry at the University of St Andrews in Dundee from 1942 to 1946. After a few months of practice he was called up for national service where he treated army recruits and, after a year, was posted to Austria where he worked at the 31st British General Hospital as No 2 dentist and subsequently Senior Dental Officer. There he became responsible for trauma. After demobilisation he wanted to practise hospital oral surgery and back in Dundee he was advised by the Professor of Anatomy that a medical qualification would not be necessary if he passed the new Fellowship in Dental Surgery examination. Thus he worked as an anatomy demonstrator while studying for part one of the exam and was then appointed as Registrar at Hill End Hospital near St Albans, and a year later promoted to senior registrar. After his four years as a senior registrar Gordon was too young for a consultant post so he was appointed as a senior hospital dental officer. After the age of 32 he was appointed as a consultant at the Royal Free Hospital for two sessions a week and the North West Thames Health Authority agreed to upgrade him to consultant at Mount Vernon Hospital (to where the Hill End department had moved in March 1953). Gordon Fordyce published papers relating to oral pathology, facial trauma and orthognathic surgery. He became involved in local and national dental politics; he was a section chairman and a member of the representative board of the BDA, President of the Institute of Maxillofacial Technology and President of the British Association of Oral Surgeons. However, his major legacy to the dental profession was the introduction of vocational training for dentists. He became an elected member of the GDC and Dental Dean of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation. He found the GDC hostile and resistant to change. It took 15 years to persuade them, many of whom were deans of dental schools, that their undergraduate training was inadequate preparation for independent practice and to persuade the government to provide funding. The first vocational training pilot started in Guildford in 1977 and it became mandatory in 1988. Gordon Fordyce retired from clinical work at Mount Vernon in 1988 but remained Chairman of the Department of Health Vocational Training Committee until 1992. He was awarded the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, OBE in 1988 and the John Tomes Medal by the BDA in 1990.