Born on 22 February 1880, second child and eldest son of the four sons and three daughters of William George Rowntree, MRCS 1874, of Islington, and his wife, *née* Kirkby. He was educated at Islington High School, University College, London, and the Middlesex Hospital, where he won the Murray scholarship in 1901 and the Freeman obstetrics and Hetley clinical medicine and surgery scholarships in 1902, the year in which he qualified. He subsequently served as registrar in the cancer wards, research scholar in the cancer research laboratory, and surgical registrar. In 1908-09 he was a Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, lecturing on x-ray carcinoma (*Lancet*, 1909, 1, 821), and from 1909 to 1911 he edited the *Middlesex Hospital Surgical Reports* and contributed several articles himself. In 1912 he edited the second edition of *Cancer of the breast clinically considered* (1904) by Cecil Huntingdon Leaf, and contributed the chapter on Treatment of cancer to A Latham and T C English's *System of medicine*. He was appointed to the surgical staff of the Royal Cancer Hospital, served eventually as senior surgeon for many years, and was elected consulting surgeon when he retired in 1940. He was also senior, later emeritus, surgeon to the Woolwich and District War Memorial Hospital; consulting surgeon to the Caterham, Erith, and East Grinstead cottage hospitals, and for a time surgeon to the Dreadnought Hospital. He was commissioned as a captain in the RAMC Territorial force on 18 November 1911; served during the first world war as medical officer to the 16th Battalion the Queen's Westminster Rifles from 18 May 1915, and was promoted brevet major on 3 June 1917. He was also consulting surgeon to the American Red Cross. Rowntree was a pioneer who fought hard for reforms and innovations. He achieved an international reputation as a cancer surgeon, and his marked executive ability brought him to the fore also in professional organizations both at home and abroad. He was president of the subsection of proctology at the Royal Society of Medicine 1929-30; and in the British Empire Cancer Campaign he served as a member of the Grand Council and its clinical research committee, and a deputy chairman of the executive committee. He also organized the Campaign's informal biennial conferences of cancer workers, and was vice-president of the 1939 conference. In 1928-29 he was chairman of the Westminster division of the British Medical Association. He was honorary secretary of the surgical section and honorary chairman of the executive committee at the International Cancer Conference held in London in July 1928; and British representative in the Union international contre le Cancer, where he also served on the executive committee and was elected a vice-president. He was created a Chevalier of the French Légion d'Honneur and an Officier of the Belgian Ordre de Leopold for his international services to cancer research. Rowntree was a man of high principle, who early in life refused an attractive chance of rapid advancement rather than go against his conscience. He was deeply interested in his fellow-men, was absolutely loyal to his colleagues and pupils, and allowed no compromise in matters on which he had taken decision. Withal he was enthusiastic, friendly, and optimistic, and full of encouragement and inspiration both for his patients and for colleagues who sought his advice in surgical or ethical difficulties. He was a handsome and dignified man of fine build, with red hair; and an excellent and humorous after-dinner speaker. He practised at 9 Upper Brook Street and later at 17 Harley House, NW1. Rowntree married in 1908 Katharine Aylmer, daughter of H Whitworth Jones, who survived him with two sons and a daughter. The younger son, Thomas Whitworth Rowntree, was admitted an FRCS in 1942. Rowntree had been a fine athlete and golfer and an active member of the Ranelagh Club. He suffered from severe cardiac illness during the last four years of his life, and died at Little Warren, East Grinstead, Sussex, on 14 October 1943, aged 63. He was cremated at East Croydon and his ashes were scattered on the lawns of Woolwich memorial hospital, Shooter's Hill. In his memory a medical and surgical reference library was founded at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Sussex (*Brit med J* 1944, 1, 642). Publications: Leaf's *Cancer of the breast clinically considered*, 2nd edition, London, 1912. Treatment of cancer, in Latham and English *System of medicine*, 1912. Operative surgery of the aged. *Clin J* 1931, 60, 257. Cancer of the breast. *Brit med J* 1937, 1, 153. On x-ray carcinoma and an experimental inquiry into the conditions which precede its onset, Hunterian lecture, RCS. *Lancet*, 1909, 1, 821.