It was very fortunate that at the end of the Second World War a local dentist who played golf with Chris’ father suggested that Chris – who enjoyed making model aircraft and seemed to be quite bright – might make a success of dentistry as a career. As a result, he became a pioneering consultant in orthodontics at Bristol, and the south west region and the Dental School went on to gain an outstanding reputation for the treatment of patients with cleft lip and palate. J C Stephenson was born in Blackburn in 1928 and qualified from Guy’s in 1954. After time in general practice in Woolwich, during which he attended the primary fellowship course at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, he joined the first full time orthodontic postgraduate course at the Eastman Dental Hospital in London, run by Clifford Ballard. He gained his diploma in orthodontics in 1956 and his fellowship of the Faculty of Dental Surgery a year later, after which he applied successfully for the senior registrar post at the Bristol Dental School, where Bill Nicol was the sole orthodontic consultant. In addition, Bill was responsible for giving orthodontic advice to the School Dental Service and the treatment of babies born with cleft lip and palate who went to the Bristol Children’s Hospital from all over the south west region. Following a General Dental Council visitation to the Bristol Dental School in 1962, a recommendation was made for an additional orthodontic consultant and Chris was well placed to apply successfully for the new post the following year. The appointment included two days at Bath and two sessions a week teaching Bristol dental undergraduates. In a rearrangement of local services, Chris took over the early dental treatment of cleft patients from Bill Nicol and, as these children went on to cleft repair at the regional plastic surgery unit at Frenchay Hospital, this meant Chris became the unofficial orthodontic consultant there, working closely initially with Denis Bodenham and, after 1969, with his successor Ron Pigott. Chris’ initial limited accommodation at Bath had been part of the former American Army Hospital and comprised a small surgery with one dental chair, no laboratory and limited X-ray facilities. In the subsequent 30 years, Chris’ efforts resulted in a fully equipped department at the Royal United Hospital (RUH) at Bath, with a linked senior registrar post and a second consultant appointed in 1987. As important, behind the scenes Chris achieved a new orthodontic consultant post at Frenchay, which allowed further development of the cleft lip and palate services there. Three years after Chris retired UK cleft lip and palate services were reviewed nationally to rationalise treatment, then being carried out at over 250 hospitals. As a result, Bristol became one of eight new national centres, producing occlusal and facial results which match the best in Europe, as well as being a centre for ground-breaking research. I first met Chris in 1971 when I came to Bristol to take up a junior lectureship in the orthodontic department of the Dental School. At that time some senior consultants still used to arrive with ponderous gravitas at about 10am. Chris used to bound into the department every Tuesday at 8.50, ready to supervise his group of undergraduates with all the cheerful enthusiasm of a new house surgeon. Two years later, when my senior academic colleague took up a regional consultant post and our senior registrar left to take up a consultant appointment, the Bristol department staff was reduced from five to three, presenting considerable problems in maintaining our service and teaching commitments. At the time there was a national shortage of both senior academic and junior hospital staff and, having advertised unsuccessfully for a new senior registrar for a year, Chris, with typical helpfulness, persuaded Bath to readvertise his unfilled senior registrar post as a registrar. Duly appointed, that individual, now a head of a UK postgraduate orthodontic department, recently wrote: ‘I was registrar at the RUH, a post Chris had set up. It was a great idea, and I learned a huge amount in my two years, which I was able to apply in my later career.’ Chris retired in 1992 to devote himself to his family, garden and vineyard and to gain his amateur radio licence. He died on 11 August 2020 at the age of 91.