Ross Fordyce Burton, known as ‘Peter’, was a consultant radiotherapist in Auckland, New Zealand. He was born on 19 September 1922 in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of Percy Robert Burton, a school principal, and Millicent Evaline Burton née French. He attended school in Opotiki, then at Brixton Road School in Mount Eden, Auckland and at Mount Albert Grammar, where he played tennis, cricket and football and gained a university scholarship. He spent a preliminary year at Auckland University and then went on to Otago Medical School, where he spent five years, qualifying in 1946. He became an anatomy demonstrator and was a teacher in the anatomy department. He was subsequently a house surgeon at the Mater Misercordiae and Middlemore hospitals in Auckland. In 1949 he went to London where he studied for his FRCS, which he gained in 1953. During his time in London he was a locum casualty officer at the Royal Northern Hospital. He also spent time in Cambridge, where he trained in radiotherapy. He returned to Auckland in 1954 and began working as a radiotherapist at Auckland Hospital. Five years later he became the head of the department. He retired in 1987. During his retirement he played golf and farmed sheep. He was married to Leonore. He had two sons, Peter and Simon, and two grandchildren.