Sittampalam Shanmugaratnam, or 'S S Ratnam' as he was known, was born in Ceylon on 4 July 1928. His father, Murugesu Sittampalam, was a civil servant in the government of Malaya. His mother was Ratneswari Chellappah. He was educated at the Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur, before going to the Univ

Alan Falconer had a long and varied surgical career in the Royal Navy, practising initially as a general surgeon before training as an obstetrician and gynaecologist. After he left the Navy, he became a school doctor at Sedbergh School in Cumbria. He was born in Darlington on 2 June 1921, the eldest