Sir Frank Colyer (1866-1954) was a man who, during an exceptionally long working life, accomplished a great deal. Following his appointment to the consultant staff at the Royal Dental Hospital and School in London, he engaged in the scientific activities of the time and in the associated controversies. He quickly gained a reputation as an educator and, in 1893 when he was 27 years of age, he collaborated with Morton Smale, his senior at the Royal Dental Hospital, in producing a book, Diseases and Injuries of the Teeth. This book became the standard undergraduate textbook in British dental schools until the 1950s, being carried through a total of nine editions, at first by Colyer single-handed, who for the third edition (1910) changed its title to Dental Surgery and Pathology, and then, in 1931 (sixth edition), began a collaboration with Evelyn Sprawson to produce the subsequent editions.

Colyer served as Dean of the Royal Dental Hospital from 1904 to 1909. During the first World War, he was one of the pioneers who, mainly through their experience in the treatment of jaw fractures, collaborated with the growing nucleus of plastic surgeons in the repair of wounds of the head and face. It was for this work that he was knighted in 1920.