After service in the Royal Air Force and a research appointment in Vancouver, Ronald Duncan Thomson Cape became senior medical registrar at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, where he was appointed consultant geriatrician in 1957. In 1975 he moved to Canada on appointment as professor and chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Western Ontario. His department became a major influence in the development of the specialty in Canada.
On retirement in 1987 he and his wife, Pat, moved to Australia, where his two sons had settled. He leaves Pat, his sons, and six grandchildren.
Former professor of geriatric medicine University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada (b 1921; q Edinburgh 1944; MD, FRCPEd, FRCPC, FACP), died from pneumonia following an infected shoulder on 9 November 2007.