William Ivor Townsend Hotten (he said the name was of Cornish origin) was born in Sydney on 24 August 1899. He attended Fort Street High School and graduated from Sydney University in 1923. His academic record contained a number of credits and his sporting interests were hockey and more especially rowing, an interest which passed along even more strongly to his son, Peter.

Ivor was drafted for war service in 1918 but the war ended just before embarkation and he continued his university career to graduate in 1923. As an undergraduate he made a number of lifelong friends, most of whom later developed into senior specialist physicians and surgeons. Ivor's anecdotes were always humorous, although long and tending to hold the floor, but worth hearing. Many of us still remember the tale about Ivor and a well-known senior physician launching and rigging a sailing boat - a tale of continuing disaster. After graduation and several years in hospital residencies, he entered general practice with Dr StJ Dansey in Strathfield which became his "home town" for the rest of his life until his retirement to Bowral. In 1927 he married Margery Taylor. There were three children, Gillian, Elizabeth and Peter. Later he moved into a larger house in Strathfield where he developed a magnificent garden which became a ruling passion. Before the days of chemical gardening his compost heap was a scientific masterpiece which all male guests were not only invited but almost required to inspect in the course of an evening.

At heart a physician, Ivor found the practice of anaesthetics much to his liking, combining as it did the principles of applied physiology with direct results on intervention, especially later when advances in intravenous therapy and increasingly accurate methods of measurement and monitoring became available. As a teacher he is remembered by many; his methods were didactic, rather ponderous, repetitive and always memorable. Practical instruction was positive and usually accompanied by humour, often sarcastic. Serious problems were dealt with immediately by a shove out of the way and a complete take-over.

He had been appointed assistant honorary anaesthetist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1930 when Dr Mark Cowley Lidwill was the director of anaesthetics. In 1939 Dr WIT Hotten was appointed senior honorary anaesthetist, in effect head of department although as a department it had not been officially constituted at the time. From then on Ivor ran the anaesthetic service as a dictatorship and it is difficult to see in hindsight by what other means he could have done so at the time: his personality brooked no democratic thinking, the geography of the Hospital at that time concentrated most of the surgical work in the one theatre block and the outbreak and progress of World War II left the staff so depleted that anaesthetics had to be carried on by the use of junior and sometimes quite untrained personnel with supervision by Ivor up and down the theatre corridor. There was some persistence of this situation after the war when staff numbers had increased.

During the war years he was also active on the staff of the Western Suburbs Hospital and 113 AGH Concord, which accounted for his occasional appearance in uniform with a major's crown up. The increasing demands of specialised surgery, first thoracic and then also cardiac surgery, found him willing and able to respond to these challenges. His postgraduate appointments and degrees make impressive reading: 1934, first president of the newly formed Section of Anaesthetics of the NSW Branch of the BMA; 1934, foundation member of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists; 1934 to 1960, lecturer in anaesthetics, University of Sydney; 1939, DA RCP&S (England); 1948, FRACP; 1951, FFARCS (England); 1952, foundation fellow FFARACS. In 1944 the diploma in anaesthetics was established in the university of Sydney and Ivor was examiner and lecturer in this for many years.

There is no doubt about Ivor's autocratic personality, and this did not always please everyone, but socially he was an excellent host, helped greatly by Margery, a charming, witty and perspicacious hostess. She had had a number of excursions into major surgery which fortunately restored her to good health. On one occasion a guest, complimenting them on the family, mentioned Peter and said, "What a wonderful young man; his father's physique and his mother's looks!" Margery, with her unfailing ability to spot a nail and hit it on the head, said, "How dreadful if it had been the other way round!"

On retirement Ivor moved to Bowral and continued with his main hobby, his garden, where he worked with great energy to transform it into a show place equal to that of Strathfield. He died at Kenilworth Nursing Home, Bowral in April 1989. Margery preceded him by a few months.