Ambrose John King died in September 2000, aged 98. He was among the last of a long line of surgeons to distinguish themselves in the care of people with venereal diseases.

He qualified at the London Hospital in 1924 and acquired the English FRCS in 1929. His training in venereology took place at the London Hospital's Whitechapel Clinic under the direction of Dr Burke. He also spent time in Earle Moore's department at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, USA. He brought back from America a Kettering Hypertherm (for the fever treatment of Reiter's disease), which …