Jim Thompson was an outstanding surgical scientist and educator, arguably without parallel in the latter half of the 20th century. His publications, almost all relating to gastrointestinal physiology, totalled nearly 1,000; he trained 131 research fellows and was the recipient of 265 visiting profes

Murray Pheils was professor of surgery at the University of Sydney. He was born in Birmingham on 2 December 1917, the younger of the two sons of Elmer Theodore Pheils, an osteopath, and Lilian Mary née Cole. His father Elmer was a colourful character: he was born in Toledo, Ohio, and trained as an o

Sir Robert Shields enjoyed a distinguished career in surgery and in academic and health service administration. He was professor of surgery and chairman of the department of surgery and honorary consultant to the Royal Liverpool University and Broadgreen hospitals from 1969 to 1996. His unit was int

Claude Organ was a distinguished American surgeon and the second African-American President of the American College of Surgeons. He was born in 1927 in Marshall, Texas, and educated at Terrell High School, Denison, and then Xavier University, Louisiana. Denied acceptance to the University of Texas o

Joel Wilson Baker was chair of the department of surgery at Virginia Mason Hospital and Medical Center, Seattle, USA. He was born in Shenandoah, Virginia, in 1905 and studied medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, qualifying MD in 1928. He moved to Seattle in 1930 to join a group

Henry Lorenz Eaton was a surgeon who lived in Western Australia. He gained his FRCS in 1963. He died in 2011.

James William Hinton was born in Reedville, Virginia, in 1894 and attended the University of Virginia where he graduated MD in 1919. He then went to the Postgraduate Hospital in New York for his surgical training and was later appointed to the consultant staff at the hospital, and at the Bellevue Ho

John Alvah MacDougall qualified in medicine from Manchester in 1934. He settled in Vancouver, Canada, where he became surgeon to the Vancouver General Hospital and to the British Columbia Cancer Institute. He was Clinical Associate Professor to the department of surgery at the University of British

Walter Campbell MacKenzie was born in 1909 in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. He went to school in Sydney and Baddeck and to Dalhousie University. He graduated BSc in 1929, MD, ChM in 1933 and was awarded the Malcolm Honour Society Medal as the outstanding graduate in his year. He was a resident at the Roya

Roger James was a general surgeon who lived and worked in Canada. He qualified from the University of Sheffield in 1953 and passed the fellowship in 1960. He moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba where he was on the staff of the Misericordia General and Victoria General Hospitals. He died on 18 January 2007.

Lloyd Nyhus was the first Warren Cole professor and head of surgery, and the second academic surgeon, at the University of Illinois, Chicago. During his 22 years as head of the department, Nyhus developed innovative, multidisciplinary residency programmes for more than 300 doctors and recruited top-

Born 1882 at Barrie, Ontario, of pioneer Scottish parents, he was educated at Barrie Grammar School where he did well at work and games. In 1899 he entered the medical faculty of the University of Toronto, from which he graduated with honours in 1903, the youngest member of his class. He played hock