Alan Lettin, one of the most distinguished orthopaedic surgeons of his generation, noted for his lifelong devotion to orthopaedic training and his commitment to the Royal College of Surgeons of England, was born in humble circumstances in the East End of London, where his father and mother ran a corner shop in Leytonstone selling groceries, stationery, tobacco and sweets. His father, Frederick, had previously been an instrument maker and, until Alan was born, his mother Louisa Marion (née Tabberer), worked for Wills Tobacco, rolling tobacco leaf to make large hand-made cigars. The more cigars she could make, the more she was paid! At the age of six, Alan started at a local primary school, walking there and back in the morning and again in the afternoon and being very unhappy. In later life, he recalled being told that if he did not attend, he would be sent to a reform school. In the early part of the Second World War, he was evacuated to Cambridgeshire, where for some months he delighted in having no schooling, spending time helping at a local farm. After the Blitz, he returned to Leytonstone and was sent to Cann Hall Primary School, where he flourished, passing the scholarship (the forerunner of the 11 plus) to Leyton County High School of Boys. Here he enjoyed sports, becoming captain of football and tennis, as well as winning several academic prizes, his most cherished being the headmaster’s prize for leadership. Having been a member of the St John Ambulance Brigade Cadets, enjoying science and having no flair for languages, he decided on applying for a place at medical school. Because of the need to live at home for financial reasons, he applied to all 12 London medical schools, but was rejected by all. However, University College had a separate entrance examination for the medical faculty and in this he was successful, starting there in 1949. He worked hard, eschewing social and sporting activities. This resulted in high marks in the second MB examinations, leading to a Medical Research Council scholarship, enabling him to pursue an honours degree in physiology (awarded in 1952), as well as a state scholarship, lasting for the duration of his clinical years. Despite the possible distraction of marriage in 1953, he won the Sir Thomas Lewis prize for clinical research in 1954 and qualified in 1955. After house appointments at University College Hospital (UCH), he entered the Royal Air Force for two years as a National Serviceman, reaching the rank of flight lieutenant. He was posted to a largely administrative job in London, which gave him the opportunity to study for the primary FRCS, which he passed at his second attempt, before being demobilised three months early to take up a casualty surgical officer’s job back at UCH. After passing the final FRCS, in 1961 he was appointed as a senior house officer at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), Stanmore, where he worked for Philip Newman and Charles Manning, both of whom greatly influenced him; the experience gained there confirmed his wish to pursue a career in orthopaedics. Registrar and then senior registrar posts at the main branch of RNOH followed, where he was especially influenced by Sir Herbert Seddon, who invited him to become a lecturer at the Institute of Orthopaedics. Here he made a detailed study of the effects of axial compression and internal fixation on the healing of fractures. The work was written up as a thesis for which he was awarded the MS of London University in 1967. In the same year, the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) awarded him the Sir Robert Jones prize and gold medal for this research. It also led to visits to Paris, Lyons and Switzerland to present his findings, the first of many visits overseas. Realising his deficiency in accident surgery and the management of children’s orthopaedics, he spent time at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, before being appointed in 1967 to a six-session consultant orthopaedic surgeon post at St Bartholomew’s Hospital with three sessions at Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Hackney. Two years later, in 1969, a consultant post at RNOH became vacant and Alan was appointed, resigning his sessions at Hackney. He remained on the staff of Barts and RNOH for the rest of his career, being involved not only with clinical work but also undertaking various management roles in both hospitals. For many years he also had honorary appointments at Doctor Barnardo’s Homes and at St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy. Alan rapidly developed an international reputation, being in demand as a lecturer in many countries as a result of his regular publications in orthopaedic journals and textbooks, especially on joint replacement, sports injuries and the management of rheumatoid abnormalities, which were his main interests. He was an outstanding lecturer – forthright, logical, lucid and always memorable. Even as a junior, Alan had been interested in training and, soon after his appointment at Barts, he instituted a rotational training scheme in orthopaedics, something unique for its time, which allowed seamless training over four years in different hospitals, posts changing every six months. Admission to the scheme became highly sought after and over the years led to a huge number of well-trained consultants in hospitals all over the country; the scheme has since been much copied in other surgical disciplines. Unsurprisingly, his trainees worshipped him and at his retirement he was presented with a leather-bound volume containing reminiscences from more than 50 of his trainees, each with a photograph. He first became associated with the Royal College of Surgeons of England when, in 1978, he was elected a member of the Court of Examiners, in those days a small elite body of surgeons, only some 30 in number. Six years later, he was elected to the College Council, where he quickly became influential especially in relations with the British Orthopaedic Association. In the 1980s, many members of the BOA were pushing hard for a separate college of orthopaedics, something which Alan strongly opposed. Being a council member of both organisations, he was able to ensure that such a breakaway did not happen, an important decision for both institutions. He became president of the BOA in 1994. At around this time, he gave up private practice in order that he could maintain his clinical commitments to the NHS, while continuing to contribute to the development of the profession by his involvement in teaching, the College and the BOA. Alan served 12 years on the College Council, eventually becoming senior vice-president after making important contributions to innumerable committees, including the chairmanship of the fundraising executive for several years. With his long interest in teaching and training it was inevitable that he became chairman of the board of surgical training and chairman of the regional training committee. In the later part of his time on Council it became apparent that the College examinations needed radical overhaul and who better to take on this challenge as lead than Alan? He became chairman of the examination board and was hugely influential in developing the many changes that were necessary. In 1998, he gave the annual Thomas Vicary lecture, in which he described the history of the Court of Examiners, the body to which he had been elected 20 years previously. Much to his disappointment, he was unsuccessful in a fiercely contested election for presidency of the College, a post which he had long hoped to achieve. In 2022, he was elected to the Court of Patrons in recognition of his outstanding service over many years, an award that many felt long overdue. A room in the College has been named after him. Outside of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Alan was a member of the General Osteopathic Council for ten years, a founder member of the Innominate Club and a member of the Percivall Pott Club, both clubs being exclusive to orthopaedic surgeons. He was also a keen and long serving member of the Worshipful Company of Barbers of London, being elected to the court and becoming master in 1990. In retirement he moved to a 400-year-old moated timber-frame farmhouse in Suffolk and spent many hours restoring the gardens and building a summer house, a workshop and a field shelter using recycled bricks and timbers from the main house. He became a part-time sheep farmer, contracting out the management, and took an active part in local community affairs, becoming chairman of the friends of the local church. He also wrote his life story *Was it something I said?* (Stanhope, Memoir Club, 2005), a title referring to his sometimes lack of tact. Always forthright in his views, he readily acknowledged that diplomacy was not his strongest attribute. His career spanned the first 50 years of the NHS and in his memoir, he described the changes which have taken place as he personally saw them, with characteristic cogency and honesty. He remained active and alert, always wanting to know the latest College gossip, until the last few years when he developed troublesome mobility problems, something he found greatly frustrating. However, these did not prevent him from attending selected London functions using a wheelchair and Zimmer frame, but in the last few months he became increasingly frail. Alan was married to Patricia (née Plumb), a legal secretary, for over 60 years (they married in 1953 while he was still a medical student) and who predeceased him. They had four children, Jennifer, who died of a spinal tumour aged 13, Nicholas, Jonathan and Timothy. Alan died on 3 January 2023, three days short of his 92nd birthday.