Malcolm Keene was a consultant ENT surgeon at St Bartholomew’s and Newham hospitals, London. He was born on 3 May 1947 at Westminster Hospital, London, the only child of Hyman Keene and Elsie Keene née Levene. He attended Christ’s College, Finchley and then studied medicine at the London Hospital Medical College, qualifying MB BS in 1970. As a medical student, he spent three months on an elective in San Francisco, at the height of flower power. A house post in general and ENT surgery kindled his lifelong interest in otolaryngology. He was a house physician at St Margaret’s, Epping, and then gained his primary FRCS while working in the Whitechapel Clinic, in a post in genitourinary medicine favoured by future surgeons. After training in ENT at the London Hospital, he gained experience in general, thoracic and ENT surgery at the Royal Masonic Hospital. His higher surgical training in ENT was at University College Hospital (the Royal Ear) and Middlesex Hospital. He also held a TWJ fellowship at the University of Toronto. In 1984 he joined the consultant staff of St Bartholomew’s and Newham hospitals. He was a consummate general otolaryngologist, equally happy in the ear, nose or throat. During his 26-year career at Barts he inevitably saw many changes. Whilst he was initially appointed to Newham, he later moved his peripheral clinic to Homerton Hospital in Hackney, where he developed the service, before focusing his clinical work back at Barts in the late 1990s. He subsequently seamlessly rode out the centralisation of services back to his *alma mater* in Whitechapel. An excellent clinical opinion, he was always available to his colleagues as a safe pair of hands and always gave sound and measured advice. He had a large and loyal following of both practitioners and patients. He was particularly interested in the professional and singing voice, and was honoured by the Guildhall School of Music with an honorary degree, of which he was immensely proud. He served on the council of the Royal Society of Medicine’s section of laryngology. He had many interests outside of ENT. He was a longstanding member of Barts Golf Society, latterly taking over responsibility for running the staff versus students match. He was a wine connoisseur, coming second as RCS wine taster of the year on one occasion. He also enjoyed cooking and vintage cars, was a competent artist and an entertaining raconteur. In 2010 he achieved a personal ambition by gaining his private pilot’s licence. He loved Italy, and Venice in particular, and spent his early retirement between Venice and London. Malcolm Keene died on 26 October 2020 at the age of 73. He was survived by his wife of 42 years, Sandra, and two sons, Simon and David.