Gordon Alexander Dyce Lavy was born on 1 October 1924 in Nablus, Palestine, where his parents were working as members of the Church Missionary Society. Having been ordained at Cambridge, his father spent some time as a missionary in the Middle East before deciding on a career in medicine and qualify

Howard Foy was born on 28 September 1919 at Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire (now Gwynedd). He graduated MB ChB at Liverpool in June 1943 and was house surgeon to Professor O Herbert Williams from July of that year to June 1944. He was then senior house surgeon to Professor T P McMurray until March

Paul Chanmugam was born in Jaffna, Ceylon, on 1 June 1900, the son of Anna Annama (née Paul) whose father was resident surgeon at the Friend in Need Hospital, Jaffna, and Joseph Kadir Gamer Chanmugam, Principal of Jaffna Central College, where he received his early medical training before entering K

Jean Anne Evans was an assistant specialist surgeon in renal medicine at Glan Clwyd Hospital, and prior to that at Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl. She was born on 25 May 1930 in Sheffield. Her father, Herbert Oliver ('Bunny') Evans, was a Congregational minister and her mother, Gertrude Mary ('Mol

Mervyn Dunning was a consultant general surgeon in Shrewsbury. He was educated at Hampton Grammar School, London. He initially trained as a dentist at the Royal Dental Hospital, qualifying in 1941. He held junior posts, as a house surgeon and then senior house surgeon in maxillofacial surgery. He t

Neil MacDonald was a consultant surgeon at the Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. He was born on 29 October 1927 in Suffolk, the son of E A MacDonald. He was educated at Ipswich Grammar School and Epsom College, from which he won a scholarship in science to the London Hospital Medical College in 1945

Roshan Lall Gupta was a surgeon in Meerut, India. He was born on 9 January 1928 in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India and gained his FRCS in 1957. He died on 30 November 2009 in Macclesfield, England, at the age of 81.

Syed Zafar Haider was professor of surgery at King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. He was born on 27 December 1927 in Lahore; the family’s ancestral home was in Bazaar-e-Hakiman in the Bhati Gate area of Lahore. His father, Mohammad Shah, was a lawyer who also held a masters’ degree in Eng

Andrew Gordon Horsburgh was born on 1 August 1926, the third son of John Barber Horsburgh, an engineer, and his wife Catherine née Gordon. After attending St Paul’s Preparatory School, Colet Court, London, he finished his education at Clayesmore School in Dorset. He studied medicine at King’s Colleg

Peter Harold Edwin Courtenay was a consultant surgeon in British Columbia, Canada. He was born in London on 5 June 1928, the only child of Harold Edwin Courtenay and Annie Lillian Courtenay née Currie. He studied medicine in London and qualified in 1951. He gained his FRCS in 1957. In 1955 he mar

Ken Brearley started life in Hampton (Melbourne) where he attended both Hampton Primary and Hampton High schools before winning a scholarship for Years 9-12 at Scotch College, which was quite some distance away in Hawthorn. In 1948, having won a place into Medicine at the University of Melbourne in

Donald Beard was the first director of surgery at Modbury Hospital in South Australia and served with distinction in the Korean and Vietnam wars. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 22 February 1925, the son of Harold Douglas Beard, a civil servant, and Alison Mavis Beard née Wright, a hous