Colonel Noel Peters was a military surgeon, general surgeon and later consultant oncologist at the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, Woolwich. He was born in Hong Kong on 20 December 1931 to Rose Margaret Peters née Shea and William Henry Peters. He was the youngest child and only son with three elder sisters, all of whom predeceased him. His father was a member of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps during the Second World War and died defending Hong Kong against the Japanese forces. The family suffered great hardships and three of his uncles were interned as prisoners of war. During this time, he was inspired by the compassion of a Japanese doctor who endeavoured to save his seriously ill sister and showed Noel photos of his own children. In 1942, his extended family of 12 and Snowy the dog, fled to neutral Macau on a small boat under cover of darkness to avoid air attacks and stayed there until the end of the war. Upon their return to Hong Kong, Noel was enrolled in the prestigious Diocesan Boys’ School in Kowloon, where he excelled academically as well as in cricket. He left school at 16 with the highest grades awarded to any boy in Hong Kong of that year and entered medical school as the youngest student to be accepted to study at Hong Kong University. He qualified in time to celebrate his twenty first birthday and, after concluding his pre-registration jobs, he transferred to UK in 1956 and started his career at Kent and Canterbury Hospital as a surgical houseman. Whilst there he met Phyllis Forman, a theatre nurse, who he married shortly afterwards. Noel was appointed as a registrar at Smallfield Hospital, Surrey and later at Redhill General Hospital as a senior registrar. He passed the FRCS in 1963 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a captain in July 1964, initially on a short service commission. He clearly enjoyed the travel afforded by life in the RAMC and subsequently had three tours to his beloved Hong Kong interspersed with postings in Germany (in Iserlohn and Hanover), Dhekelia in Cyprus, Singapore (including a spell at the British Military Hospital in Dharan, Nepal), Catterick, Woolwich and Northern Ireland, where he pioneered surgery for gunshot and shrapnel wounds, later adopted in the Falklands War. He was appointed to the Military Hospital at Catterick as a consultant in 1970, where he was recognised as a fine technical surgeon and his opinion was greatly valued. While at Catterick, Noel was awarded the Order of St John of Jerusalem. In 1981, he and his colleague Peter Craig introduced the idea of taking Chinese civilian patients into the British Military Hospital in Hong Kong from the new but very overworked Queen Elizabeth Hospital close by. This afforded excellent experience for the junior staff, and stimulating and interesting cases for consultants, including portal hypertension, gastric cancers and the complications of clonorchis sinensis (liver fluke). The last was still a common condition in Hong Kong, although rapidly reducing as a result of improving water quality and a more westernised diet. The corollary was that the incidence of colorectal cancer, hitherto rare in the Chinese community, was rapidly rising to the level seen in the West. Following that tour he was posted to Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, Woolwich, where he restored the Army oncology unit following the closure of Millbank Hospital in 1977, where the Army Cancer Registry had been housed. He worked closely with the best oncology units in London to provide first class treatment for soldiers and their families, and his team achieved the highest survival rates in the UK for his innovative treatments for testicular cancers. He was highly respected for his work there and was awarded the CBE for his efforts. Noel was also awarded the Mitchiner medal 1986, in recognition of his contribution to advances in medical science. He retired from the RAMC in 1990 and returned to the British Military Hospital in Hong Kong in its final days as a civilian consultant. He was a much respected and trusted colleague and always a pleasure to work with. He left Hong Kong in 1997, just before the handover to China, and returned to the family home in Kent. Noel was a passionate exponent of the natural world, endangered animals and birds, as well as sick and vulnerable children and cancer related societies. He generously supported all manner of charities throughout his life and gave his time and energy to those most in need. He enjoyed travel and classical music and was never happier than when he was surrounded by his family enjoying a large glass of Australian shiraz on family holidays in various parts of the world. He died after a short battle with pneumonia on 28 May 2021. He was survived by his wife, three daughters and three grandchildren and is sorely missed.