following his medical education and training at the st john's college, cambridge and middlesex hospital, london, and with a distinction in surgery, he took various surgical posts in cheltenham, brighton, wolverhampton, and gloucester. he became a fellow of the royal college of surgeons of england in 1979 and after a travelling scholarship to the duke university medical center, north carolina, usa, he gained an md and was elected the hunterian professorship with a lecture titled "the investigation and management of the neurogenic bladder". in 1986, he was appointed consultant urologist at st bartholomew’s hospital, london, where he later took over from john wickham and he subsequently became one of the first urologists in the uk to perform open radical prostatectomy for localised prostate cancers.