My father, Michael King, who has died aged 88, always wanted to be a doctor, following a childhood incident when he accidentally killed a squirrel with his catapult to which he attributed his lifelong commitment to surgery and medicine. He worked for three decades as a surgeon in Malawi.
Michael was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, where his father, Leslie, was vicar of Holy Trinity, Jesmond; his mother, Rosina (nee Stanton), had worked in Liberty’s in London before her marriage. During the second world war the family were living in Anerley, south London, and Michael went to Dulwich College prep school followed by Hereford Cathedral school.
