For the fortunate few who participate in College study tours abroad, an added bonus—and a not inconsiderable one at that—is the opportunity to abdicate all responsibility. From the moment of take-off on the way out to the moment of touch-down on the way back, the tour leader takes over as a sort of surrogate father. On this occasion our father, ironically enough, may not have been the youngest among us chronologically speaking, but he was nevertheless the youngest in heart. He was irrepressible, imperturbable and ebullient, and on his, admittedly, broad shoulders fell the onus of caring for a mixed bag of psychiatrists and their spouses, mixed, that is, in terms of age, sex and, in particular, temperament. We, with little respect for his status, chose to call him ‘Cyril’, whereas our Chinese colleagues with their traditional sense of propriety and respect for parental status, gave him his due and saw fit to address him reverentially as, ‘The Honourable Dr Cyril Davies’.