John Graham Holmes-Smith | The BMJ

Orphaned as a teenager, John Holmes-Smith followed his brother Pop into medicine. He found great camaraderie at medical school, where he captained Guy’s B rugby team for five years. He met up with fellow members of the Guy’s Hospital ’59 Club every year for 60 years. After qualifying, John was called up for national service just as it ended in 1960. He was not demobilised until 1991.

After a promising start in paediatrics, with housekeeping jobs at Guy’s and the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children, both in London, John and his wife Jennifer (a nursing graduate from Guy’s) went on a military flight to …