Roger Miles was born in Liverpool on 1 May 1915, the third child of Edwin Griffith Miles, a Presbyterian minister and Annie Miles, née Jones. Most of his childhood was spent in Felixstowe on the Suffolk coast where he developed his lifelong love of sailing and the sea. He was educated at Bradfield C

Duncan Stout was not deterred by having a famous father, Sir Robert, who became Chief Justice of New Zealand, Chancellor of the University and Prime Minister. In his own time he too achieved eminence in New Zealand, becoming Chairman of Council of Victoria University, Wellington and subsequently Cha

John Edward (Jack) Piercy was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1899 and during the first world war served with the Royal Flying Corps. He returned to England in 1920 to start medical studies at Guy's Hospital qualifying in 1924. After early appointments at St Andrew's Hospital, Bow, and the Roy

Norman Ernest Pitt was born in Worthing on 25 November 1904, the son of Thomas William Pitt, an army officer, and his wife, Naomi. He was educated at Brighton Grammar School and studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School where he obtained an honours BSc in physiology before qualifying in 1928

Nathaniel Allan Miller, the elder of twins, was the son of Thomas Henry Miller, a medically qualified dental surgeon, and of Janet Allan Miller (née Cook), the daughter of Alexander Cook, MD, FRCS Ed. His twin brother, Alec, became a consultant physician. Nathaniel was born at Preston, Lancashire, o

Born in 1895 John McNeil Milloy was educated at Glasgow University, where he qualified MB, ChB with honours, and the London Hospital. His earliest hospital appointments were at the Greenwich and Deptford Hospital, and later he worked at Birkenhead Borough Hospital, Tooting Bec Hospital, St Peter's H

Educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and St Thomas's Hospital, William George Quincey Mills qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1934 and later obtained the MB, BCh at Cambridge and became a Fellow of the College in 1936. After junior posts at St Thomas's Hospital and the Radcliffe I

Frank Sutcliffe Bowly was born on 17 March 1925 in Sydney, the son of Francis, a sheep farmer, and his wife Olga. His grandfather, Charles William Bowly, was a pioneer grazier from England who had settled in Australia in 1873. Until the age of thirteen Frank Bowly was educated by correspondence as h

Derek Ryder was born in New Plymouth in 1914. He was educated at Auckland Grammar School and Rotorua High School where he was dux and had a distinguished athletic record. He trained at Otago University, qualifying MB ChB in 1938. As an undergraduate he played rugby for four years with distinction. H

Born in Oudtshoorn, Cape Province, South Africa, on 26 May 1900, the only son of Elias Meyer Sacks, a tobacco manufacturer, and Rachel Berman whose father was an exporter of ostrich feathers, Isak George Sacks was educated in the Boys' High School, Oudtshoorn, the Marist Brothers' College, Uitenhage

Alan Sutherland had some remarkable experiences as a doctor at war. He was a prisoner of war for one day when, as a member of the 6th Field Ambulance, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, he was captured by German paratroops during the evacuation from Crete in 1941. They were killed so he escaped. L

George Syme carried on the tradition of his father, Sir George Syme, as surgeon to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia. Born on 20 April 1902 in Melbourne, the only son, he was educated at Trinity and Melbourne Grammar Schools, then at Melbourne University where he obtained first class honours i