Written by Hesham Saleh
Tony Bull was born on the 21st December 1934, the son of a dentist. He was sent away to boarding school in Monkton Combe near Bath at the young age of 5yrs. He excelled both academically and on the sports field, with a gift for both tennis and hockey. He played tennis for Somerset and hockey at National level for Wales. He decided to become a doctor and took his medical training at the London Hospital. After working in Jamaica, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to The Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital at the age of 29. He was also appointed to St Mary Abbots Hospital in Kensington, which was later moved to Charing Cross Hospital.
Tony will be remembered best for the leading role he played in advancing nasal and facial plastic surgery but he was also a gifted otologist with an interest in stapedectomy, which he continued to practice until retiring. His interest in facial plastic surgery took him early on to the USA to see the leading rhinoplasty surgeons and in 1970 established the first Rhinoplasty course in the UK at The Institute of Laryngology and Otology. Together with his friend and colleague Professor Claus Walter from Dusseldorf, he set about establishing the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery and had its first meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine in December 1977. He was truly a pioneer in his field and the founder of the Facial Plastic Surgery Journal. Tony had charismatic and exceptional teaching and lecturing skills that he mixed with great sense of humour. Ironically, he developed idiopathic vocal cord palsy but refused to let this bother him and his lecturing continued worldwide as successfully as ever.