Born at Hawkes Bay, New Zealand on 28 August 1902, the second of the three sons of George Nelson, civil engineer, and Mabel Price, his wife. He was educated at Fount Row, Surrey, at Harrow from Easter 1916 to Midsummer 1918, and at Caius College, Cambridge, from Michaelmas term 1920. He graduated in

Born in 1919 at Mountain Ash, Glamorgan, he was educated at Repton, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and the Middlesex Hospital. After qualification he served as a Captain and graded surgeon in the RAMC. Later he was resident medical officer at Tindal House Emergency Hospital in Aylesbury an

Born on 1 October 1911 the only son of Alexander Mair, seed merchant, and Margaret Middleton his wife, he was educated at Turriff High School, Aberdeenshire and qualified from Aberdeen University in 1934. After serving as house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Oldham, and resident surgical officer at

Hyder Ismail Sheikh was born on 5 April 1931 at Shahada, Maharashtra, India and educated at the University of Bombay, where he graduated in 1956 with first-class honours in medicine and surgery. After holding house appointments at the Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy Hospital, Bombay, he came to England and was

John Angus Aylwin was born in Leeds, the son of Ernest Angus Aylwin, an engineer, who married a Miss Bates, but John was the only man in the family to take up medicine. He was educated at the Leeds Grammar School and in medicine at Leeds University, where he qualified MB ChB in 1940. He became a Fel

Philip Rowland Allison, the son of J R Allison, was born at Selby, Yorkshire, on June 2 1907, and was educated at Hymers College, Hull. He was one of a family of five, two others of whom became doctors. He entered the Leeds Medical School in 1924 and had a brilliant career, taking the BSc with first

Born 16 August 1916 in Montrose, Scotland, the son of a general practitioner and his wife Annie (Mackenzie), Douglas Milne was educated at Montrose Academy and the University of Aberdeen. He served as Captain with the RAMC in the second world war from 1941 and saw active service in the Middle East (

Bryan Moore studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, where he became casualty surgical officer and house surgeon. He was a surgical specialist in the RAMC from 1944 to 1947, then a surgical registrar at UCH. He was subsequently appointed a consultant thoracic surgeon to the South East Metropolitan

Born in 1919, Ivan Barnat studied medicine at Witwatersrand University and qualified MB ChB in 1942. After serving in the South African Medical Corps during the second world war, he came to Britain and became FRCS in 1947. Following his return to South Africa he practised in Durban, specialising in

Peter Henry Jones was born in Monmouth on 1 March 1917 and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's West Monmouth School in Pontypool. He studied medicine at the Westminster Hospital and qualified in 1939. After house appointments at the Westminster Hospital he served in the RAMC from 1942 to 1946 as Reg

Andrew Jowett was born in Sunderland in 1933, where his father, Ronald, an honorary FRCS, was an ENT surgeon and a member of the Newcastle Regional Hospital Board. Andrew was educated at Sedbergh School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he gained his BA in 1954. He subsequently went on to the

Born in 1929, Hakim Abdel Malak Samaan studied medicine in London, qualifying MB, BS from Guy's Hospital in 1958. He became surgical registrar in the thoracic unit of the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh and passed the FRCS Ed in 1962. Moving to London he held appointments at the Prince of Wales' Hospit