Geoff Smiddy was a senior surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary and a prolific author. He was born in Kendal on 4 January 1922. His father was a hotelier and his mother looked after a haberdashery shop. His was not an easy childhood – his father left the family home shortly after he was born and his mo

Gunter was educated at Melbourne University, qualifying MB BS there in 1945 and gaining his MS in 1950. He held junior appointments at the Royal Melbourne Hospital from 1945 to 1949. He came to Britain in 1950 and passed the FRCS examination in that year. After spending a year at Frenchay Hospital,

James Oldfield was born in Sunderland on 10 July 1923. His father was Thomas Oldfield, a shipwright, and his mother was Annie, née Cockerill-Lawrence. He attended Bede Collegiate School, Sunderland, and then went to Durham University to study medicine on a Miners' Association Scholarship. He attende

Neil Mackillop was born of Scottish parents in Karachi in 1920. He was educated at Glasgow High School and the University of Glasgow where he captained the university rugby team. After qualifying in 1943 and one year in resident appointments he joined the Royal Navy for three years and returned to t

Charles Raymond Helsby was born on 13 February 1921 in St Helens, Lancs, the son of a local businessman, Frederick Johnson Helsby and his wife Emily, née Cawley. Following the local infant school he attended Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and went on to the Liverpool Medical School. He qualified

John Wedgwood Graham, the son of John Machefer Graham, a farmer and grazier, and of Ivy Maud (née Wedgwood), a descendant of Charles Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, was born on 1 June 1921 at Narrabri, New South Wales. His grandfather, John Bass Graham, was a medical graduate from Dublin who practised i