Adrian Flatt was born in Frinton, England, on August 26, 1921. He received his medical education at Cambridge University and the London Hospital and completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery under Sir Reginald Watson-Jones and Sir H. Osmond-Clarke at the London Hospital. He also completed a year of plastic surgery training under Professor Pomfret Kilner at Stoke-Mandeville Hospital. After a tour of military service with the Royal Air Force in Sri Lanka, Dr. Flatt returned to England. He was a founding member of the British Second Hand Club (British Society for Surgery of the Hand). In 1956, Dr. Flatt joined the faculty of the University of Iowa and not long afterwards became professor of anatomy and professor of orthopaedic surgery as well as director of the Division of Hand Surgery. At Iowa City he directed major research programs in congenital anomalies and biomechanics of the hand and did extensive clinical research in rheumatoid arthritis. In 1979, Dr. Flatt moved to Connecticut to be chief of surgery at the Norwalk Hospital and clinical professor at Yale University. In 1982, he became chief of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Baylor University Medical Center.