John Ireland was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at King George Hospital Ilford, Essex and at the nearby private hospital Holly House in Buckhurst Hill, Essex. He was born in Newquay, Cornwall on 14 July 1942. His father, Victor Edwin Ireland, known as ‘Mike’, was stationed as a Second World War volunteer oral surgeon to the RAF nearby. Mike had been a final year mature medical student at Westminster Hospital Medical School in London when he met and married John’s mother, Mina Mary Bugler, a ward sister. John became a boarder at Ipswich School and shone academically in mathematics and the sciences, as well as showing an aptitude for carpentry. He also sang bass solo for the choir. He excelled at running, middle distance and cross country. In 1961, he came within a whisker of the school record for the mile, set in 1960, running a few seconds over four minutes. Not a conformist, he willingly tested boundaries, but his japes did not adversely affect his career at school. He went to King’s College in London and qualified from his father’s medical school, Westminster. His first post, as a house surgeon to the orthopaedic firm of Herbert Harding and David Evans (both keen golfers), inculcated an interest in orthopaedics. Harding, particularly, encouraged John’s passion for golf, and remained a mentor. Six months as a ship’s surgeon on the P&O liner *Canberra* were followed by senior house officer posts in surgery. During his registrar rotation, including orthopaedics, at Hillingdon Hospital in London he obtained his fellowship. There he also met and married the obstetric senior house officer, Shahla Samsami. They had two sons (Michael and David) and a daughter (Roya): none of the three took up medicine. John was appointed as a registrar to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), London and Stanmore (deferred for six months to allow him to fulfil an obligation as a volunteer surgeon in Papua New Guinea), and progressed to senior registrar, gaining wide ranging experience in various sub specialties. At RNOH he worked for Lorden Trickey, a knee surgeon. This stimulated John’s love of knee surgery. An AO/Ethicon travelling fellowship enabled John to visit two internationally famous knee units, in Geneva and Lyon, to advance his learning. In 1979 John was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to King George Hospital, Ilford, and soon after to Holly House Hospital. He established an innovative surgery practice at both; introducing arthroscopic surgery and the treatment of cruciate ligament injuries being just two of his many achievements. In 1983, he was awarded the Royal College of Surgeons/Johnson and Johnson travelling fellowship to visit knee surgery centres in North America, including that of the famous New York surgeon, John Insall. John’s attempts at establishing a pioneering NHS knee unit at the King George Hospital were thwarted by lack of administrative and managerial support, compounded by lukewarm support from some colleagues (professional envy possibly responsible for the latter). He therefore resigned from his NHS post aged 50 and established his knee unit at Holly House Hospital. It became a thriving teaching unit, with a rotating fellowship with Newham General Hospital. John charged modest fees and followed up his patients for free for long periods for his continuing research into their outcomes. He published his results extensively. John was a founding member of the British Association for Surgery of the Knee and served a term as honorary secretary. He was also a founder of the Sesamoid Society (the patella being the largest sesamoid bone), which met regularly at various venues and had its 79th meeting in 2019. This was the first and only meeting that he and his wife missed due to John’s terminal illness. Apart from his family, John’s other abiding passion was golf. He not only played regularly, including in the annual Robert Jones Cup at the British Orthopaedic Association’s meeting, but also set up the New Knee Golf Society, where knee surgeons and their patients enjoyed playing together. John also loved music and was a chamber music aficionado. He owned and maintained some rows in an established Essex vineyard and was generous in presenting his own label bottles of still and sparkling wine to friends and relations. On 16 May 2019 John succumbed to T-cell lymphoma, refractory to all treatment, within a very short period of being diagnosed. He was 76.