Christopher (Chris) Lamb started his professional life as a dentist but, whilst a lecturer at Guy’s Hospital dental school, he realised that he wanted to be the one performing the procedures he was obliged to refer. He subsequently chose to retrain, gaining a medical degree and a dental fellowship and elected to have a career in ENT surgery, becoming a consultant at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex and at St Margaret’s Hospital, Epping. Chris was the only child of Alexander Raymond Lamb, a company director, and Phyllis Lamb née Manley, who was called to the Bar in 1934 and became chair of the Epping Juvenile Bench. He was very close to his family, especially his parents. After being educated at Repton, Chris claimed that he could have survived Colditz. His long-held hope of a future test-flying jets was dashed when he failed his medical on the grounds of imperfect eyesight. However, whilst sitting in his dentist’s chair, he thought ‘I could do this’! Thus started his long and happy association with Guy’s dental and then medical schools. In 1964, he was awarded a Nuffield Foundation travelling scholarship in tropical medicine that enabled him to spend his three-month elective in Hong Kong. He wrote up this experience in the *Guy’s Hospital Gazette* (2 October 1965). Having decided on ENT surgery as a career, Chris trained at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital and the Institute of Laryngology and Otology where, as a senior registrar, he came under the guidance of Donald Harrison. At that time there was a close link with the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica where, for a year, Chris was seconded as a consultant working with John Conley, the world-famous American head and neck surgeon. This experience not only gave him a superb training but also fostered in him a lifelong love of the Caribbean and its people. He then returned to Epping, his home, and Harlow, where he established an ENT service. He was a keen member of the Royal Society of Medicine’s sections of laryngology and otology and the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery (he gained a diploma in nasal plastic surgery in 1986). Chris’s first marriage was in 1965 to Susan Evans. They had two daughters, Sally and Helen. In 1989 he met Joanna Griffiths, a local GP, at Chislehurst Golf Club and they were married the following year. Their daughter Madeleine was born in 1991. None of his children followed in their father’s footsteps. Whilst at medical school Chris was actively rallying, flying (he featured in Harold Preiskel’s book *Wings of youth*) and playing football. Chris was a devoted golfer, a lover of French wines and a voracious reader, particularly of non-fiction. He was reading a book on quantum physics on the day he suffered from a terminal stroke. He died on 6 December 2019 in the Princess Royal University Hospital, Farnborough Common. He was 83.