Thomas Frederick Stoyle (“Tom”) passed away peacefully on Sunday 24 January 2010, aged 83.

Tom came a long way in his career. He was born in Glasgow on 21 April 1926, the very same day as Her Majesty the Queen. His father was a regular soldier, from a long line of military men, and his mother was German. Before the second world war Tom spent his summer holidays in the Rhineland with his cousins. He was educated at the Cardinal Vaughan School in south London. At the age of 17, he volunteered for the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm, and at the same time won a place to read classics at Magdalen College in Oxford. He spent only six months at Magdalen College before he was called up and sent to Texas to learn how to fly. He subsequently used to tell how, when he was flying on submarine patrols, he was “off to bomb his Uncle Willi,” a U-boat commander!

He returned to England just before the war ended and a large part of the Fleet Air Arm, which had grown during the war to include 69 aircraft carriers, 3700 aircraft, 72 000 officers and men, and 56 air stations, was disbanded. After the war, Tom went on to study medicine in London at King’s College in the Strand, and at St George’s Hospital on Hyde Park Corner.

He moved to Sheffield as senior registrar and was always very proud to have served under Sir Frank Holdsworth, who suggested he apply for the consultant post in Leicester. He was also influenced in his paediatric work by John Sharrard. When Tom was appointed consultant in 1965, Leicester was very much the poor relation of the Sheffield region. With Joss Hill, who had been appointed director of orthopaedic surgery in Leicester, Tom …