Michael O'Riordan was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Croydon Eye Unit, Mayday Hospital. He was born in Markham, Gwent, on 14 August 1929, the son of Michel Joseph O'Riordan, a general practitioner, and Milwen Mary Lima O'Riordan née Jones, a teacher. He came from a medical background - his fath

Andrew McKie Reid was born on 14 April 1893 and educated at Liverpool University. In 1914 he interrupted his undergraduate career to be commissioned in the King's Liverpool Regiment, and was awarded the Military Cross in 1916 when serving on the Somme with the Machine Gun Corps. In 1918 he was wound

Thomas Crawford Barras came of a distinguished Glasgow medical family. His father, William Barras, was President of the Scottish Society of Anaesthetists at the time of his death in a motoring accident in 1928, and his grandfather Thomas Crawford also practised as a doctor in Glasgow. Barras was

Oswald Gayer Morgan was born in Seaford, Sussex, on 5 July 1889, the eldest son of William Pringle Morgan and Ethel, née Eastwood. He was educated at Epsom College, Clare College, Cambridge, and Guy's Hospital Medical School, qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma in 1913. A year later he went to Fran

Isidore Spiro served in two world wars. In the first world war he served as an ordinary infantryman in France. He was prevented from sitting the Final FRCS examination in 1939 because he had been called up, and when he eventually obtained leave from the British Expeditionary Force in order to sit he

Allen John Bridson Goldsmith was born on 27 November 1909, the son of an Edinburgh MD. He was educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and the Middlesex Hospital. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1931 and took the MB BS with distinction in medicine and pathology. He held posts at th

Andrew Elkington was a consultant ophthalmologist in Southampton and one of the founders of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. He was born on 12 December 1935 in Newport, Shropshire, into a medical family; his ancestors had been doctors since the eighteenth century. His father, George Ernest Elk

Born on 23 June 1901 in New Amsterdam, British Guiana, he was the son of William George Boase, MRCS, LRCP. He was educated at Mount St Mary's, a Jesuit college in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and St Thomas's Hospital, London, where he was influenced by the late Philip Mitchiner, then resident assistant

George William Black was born in Boston, Lincolnshire on 21 January 1903 and was educated at Boston Grammar School and at the Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1926. During his early years in London he became very conscious of the divisions in English life, joining the Fabian Society and becoming a

Michael John Gilkes was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Sussex Eye Hospital, Brighton. He was born in Montreal, Canada, on 31 August 1923, the only child of Hester Dene Aram Parker, a musician, pianist and singer. She later married Martin Heming Gilkes, an author and teacher, who had lost a leg

Haripada Adhikary was an ophthalmologist at the Royal Preston Hospital. He was born in 1941 in pre-partition India in the small village of Rampal in the district of Khulna, the son of Upendra Nath Adhikary and Kalidasi Adhikary. He initially worked as a mathematics teacher, but later studied medicin

Ivan Cher was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the University of New South Wales’ Teaching Hospital, Sydney. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 22 November 1927, the son of Paul Cher and Minnie Cher née Spiro. He attended Wellington College, where in 1945 he gained the Lance George Memorial