Neil Boughey was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, Lincolnshire. He was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on 3 January 1931. His father, William Boughey, was born in Dublin in 1874 and worked as a solicitor in Ireland for many years. He married Eileen Hosken, a Cornish woman, in 1929 in Truro, Cornwall. She was an accomplished musician and taught the piano. They had two sons, Neil and Geoffrey. The family continued to live in Truro and Neil was very proud of being a Cornishman. The boys had a really good childhood, bathing in the local coves, playing in the woods and playing golf on the local course, becoming low handicap golfers. Neil started school at the Cathedral School, Kenwyn, and was a boy chorister at Truro Cathedral. He enjoyed singing for the rest of his life. He then went to Truro School as a day boy. He mainly enjoyed school work, apart from a reluctance to write essays. He could not see the point of them, a view not shared by his English teacher. He was a keen sportsman, playing football and cricket for the school. He was particularly proud of being in the first XI cricket team for three years, also playing cricket for Truro and Cornwall at times when still at school. He passed his higher exams a year early, but had to spend another year in the sixth form as he was not yet old enough to start at medical school. He then attended Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, London, from 1948, where he continued to play sport – football, cricket and golf – for the medical school and other teams. He greatly enjoyed the medical course, qualifying in 1954. He had a mildly pessimistic nature and the cartoon for him in the students’ final year book showed him going out to bat, carrying not only a bat but also an umbrella. He then worked at Charing Cross Hospital, doing the two house jobs needed for full registration. Instead of doing two years National Service, he took a short service commission in the RAMC and was based at Woolwich. He played golf for the RAMC, Army and the Household Brigade, and cricket for the Royal Artillery. There was little medical work for him for much of the time and his sporting activities were so numerous that an inspecting officer told him he would be sent to Singapore. The RAMC presumably did not wish to lose his sporting prowess, and this posting never materialised, to the surprise and annoyance of the senior officer when he visited the unit again a year later. After military service, he returned to Charing Hospital, working in several house jobs, receiving excellent testimonials from his various chiefs. He decided on orthopaedics as a career and, wishing to gain experience in trauma work, he went to Kingston Hospital, Surrey, as a casualty registrar. While there, he met Mary Davies, who was also working there as a house officer, and they married in September 1962. After this, he went to the Royal Free Hospital, London, for two years as an orthopaedic registrar. At this time, he was working for a surgical fellowship, so he worked for a short time in an emergency call service, operating in East London. He then went to Portsmouth, Hampshire, as a research fellow as they wanted someone to look into the efficiency of the ambulance service in the region. His subsequent report was printed in the *British Medical Journal* (‘Accidents, emergencies, and ambulances: a survey in Portsmouth’ *Br Med J* 1968 Feb 10;1[5588]:369-72). At this time, he also produced an analysis of open reduction and internal fixation for ankle fractures with Robin Denham. Having gained his fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh, he obtained a senior registrar post in orthopaedics, rotating between Leicester Royal Infirmary for two years and then at Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. He was subsequently appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, Lincolnshire in 1971. The Pilgrim Hospital was still being built at the time. He joined James Green, who had been appointed a few months earlier. Prior to their appointments there had been no proper orthopaedic service in south Lincolnshire, and patients had had to travel considerable distances to obtain treatment. They built up a full orthopaedic service at the Pilgrim Hospital, which ranged from paediatric to spinal surgery and joint replacements, and also a trauma unit dealing with the full range of trauma, including head and chest injuries. He gained the respect of the nursing and other staff within the first week by efficiently removing an iron bar from the chest of an unfortunate man who had impaled himself upon it; the patient made a full, uneventful recovery. He was an excellent orthopaedic surgeon. He also developed a hook for stabilising coracoclavicular ligament injuries, which he used very successfully on appropriate patients. Neil continued his interest in sport, watching international and test cricket at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, football matches on TV and playing golf at Woodhall Spa Golf Club. As there were only two consultants at this time for a very busy casualty and orthopaedic department at the Pilgrim Hospital, each consultant was on call 50% of the time. As this was before mobile phones, social and sporting events had to be carefully planned in advance. The department built up, and Neil became a clinical tutor at Leicester University, teaching students at the Pilgrim Hospital. They found his teaching both interesting and helpful. Eventually a third consultant was appointed at the hospital. Neil retired from clinical work in 1992. He then continued for ten years with an extensive practice providing medical reports for local solicitors, finally retiring from all medical work in 2002. He served as a Liberal Democrat councillor for Boston Borough from May 1991 to 1999. At the same time, he was chairman of the St Leonards Hospital Trust, a local charity which looks after local almshouses, and this continued until he left Boston in 2007. In 2007, he retired with his wife to Bourne, Lincolnshire, in order to live nearer his son, Justin, and his family. By this time there were two grandsons to whom he taught golf. Family holidays in Cornwall continued, as Neil shared his love of the county over the years with his son and daughter, Alison. Neil’s life was a happy one. There were, of course, some difficulties and setbacks that are part of life, but he enjoyed his career in orthopaedic surgery, for which he had great talent. He also enjoyed teaching his trainees and students, who were always appreciative of his ability in this, feeling that they learned a great deal from him, both theoretically and practically. He also happily followed other interests, particularly those connected with sport, for which he had great aptitude. He had insulin dependent diabetes for many years. He finally died peacefully at home, of heart failure and old age, on 27 December 2018, one week before his 88th birthday.