Lance Karl Hyde Therkildsen was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in west Essex, based at Epping, Bishop’s Stortford and Harlow. He was born on 26 July 1937, the only son of Karl Therkildsen and Hilda Therkildsen née Hyde. He owed his name to a Danish grandfather, but never actually visited Denmark until his 80th birthday. His father was a horticulturist and plantsman who specialised in alpines and roses, setting up in Southport, where he opened a nursery. It was here that Lance was raised and also attended preparatory school. He won a place to study classics at Tonbridge School in Kent but, once established, opted instead to study sciences. At Tonbridge he developed an interest in choral music and joined the choir, which started a lifelong love of music. He was accepted by St Bartholomew’s Hospital to read medicine and thoroughly enjoyed his five years as a medical student, during which time he became a keen university oarsman, spending many hours rowing on the Thames. After qualifying in 1961, he had house appointments at the Metropolitan Hospital, which was the elective wing of St Bartholomew’s at the time. He then obtained his diploma of obstetrics and gynaecology, an unusual choice for an orthopaedic surgeon, but which probably kindled his interest in disorders of children, which later became his orthopaedic sub-specialty. He later became a casualty senior house officer at the West London Hospital, where he obtained his primary FRCS; more importantly, he met Valerie Bone, a nurse who later became his wife. They married in 1968. His surgical registrar appointments were at the Bromley Hospital and the Chelmsford and Essex Hospital, during which time he achieved his final fellowship. At Chelmsford he worked for John Moore and Michael Heywood-Waddington, two illustrious Essex orthopaedic surgeons who ignited his desire for a career in orthopaedics. His subsequent appointment at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital as an orthopaedic registrar led to a successful application to the newly formed Percival Pott orthopaedic higher surgical training rotation, into which he was absorbed. Members of this prestigious group were automatically promoted from registrars to senior registrars. The rotation then consisted of posts at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Great Ormond Street and St Bartholomew’s, from where the trainees after accreditation were expected to become consultants. After accreditation he was appointed in 1977 to the three hospitals that made up the West Essex District, based at Epping, Bishop’s Stortford and Harlow as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon with a special interest in children’s orthopaedics, and principal paediatric trainer in the district to the Pott rotation at Harlow. He ran the casualty service at St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping until a full-time accident and emergency consultant was appointed in February 1990. As a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon he frequently performed procedures that would now be done only in dedicated children’s hospitals, such as open reduction of developmental dysplasia of the hip and complex clubfoot correction. He was an excellent teacher of surgery with great patience in guiding and assisting his registrars from ‘the other side of the table’. He was involved in many regional, district and local committees and ran the Harlow Biennial Open Day meeting on four occasions over a six-year period to 1999. He was elected president of the Percival Pott Club for the year 2001 to 2002. As a person he was entirely devoid of ego; he was perpetually good-humoured and cheerful. He was blessed with a great sense of humour and fun, together with a tinge of endearing eccentricity, providing ammunition for many subsequent anecdotes. He and his wife Valerie were always wonderful hosts, entertaining colleagues and junior staff alike, all of whom regarded them as their friends. Throughout his life he derived most pleasure, outside surgery, from his family, his home and his love of choral music. Both his sons attended the King’s School, Ely as choral scholars, which they very much enjoyed. He died on 27 September 2021 and was survived by his wife Valerie, his sons Karl and Adrian, and four grandchildren.