Eric John Smith was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born on 31 March 1910 in Norwood, Surrey, the second son of Robert Percy and Edith Smith. His early life was overshadowed by the death from Hodgkin’s disease of his elder brother who had been a child prodigy, and Eri

Samuel Ernest Birdsall was born on 14 February 1908 in Skipton, Yorkshire, the only son of James Ernest, an optician, and his wife, Eva. He attended Skipton Grammar School winning an open exhibition to Christ's College, Cambridge. His clinical studies were carried out at St Bartholomew's Hospital, L

Iain Matheson was one of those unsung heroes who throughout the war and the worst of the bombing kept the civilian services going with very little assistance in the poorest parts of London. He was born on 18 November 1906 in Blackheath, South London, where his father John was a general practitioner,

Born on 20 July 1907, William Henry Graham Jessop was educated at Almondsbury Grammar School, Huddersfield, and King's College, Cambridge, where he gained his BA in Natural Sciences in 1928. He did his clinical studies at University College Hospital, graduating MRCS LRCP in 1931, and later the Cambr

Thomas Stewart Heslop was born in South Shields, the son of a schoolmaster, on 18 March 1907. He was educated at Blackburn Grammar School and Manchester University, where he graduated with first class honours in 1931, gaining the medal in medicine. After two years in the anatomy department under Pro

James Dudfield Rose graduated MB BS from the medical school in Newcastle (then part of Durham University) in 1930 and went to Germany in 1936 to study gastroscopy, returning with a permanent impression of the rise of Nazism. Commissioned in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he was evacuated from Dunkirk

Henry Shucksmith was the third child of Thomas Warth Shucksmith, a farmer of Alvington, Lincolnshire, and his wife Fanny White, whose father was a blacksmith. He was educated at the Alvington and North Coederington Church of England Elementary School followed by the King Edward VI Grammar School, Lo

After taking the Fellowship in 1935, Chatterjee returned to practise in India, where he died early in 1972.

Doris O'Doherty was born on 7 April 1902, the elder of two daughters of Charles Patrick O'Doherty, the assistant secretary of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and of Blanche Mary Clark. After education at the Mary Thatcher Girls' School in Camberwell she secured a St Dunstan's S

George Clayfield Sawyer was born on 14 August 1909 in Portsmouth where his father was a sports journalist, later becoming Clerk to the local Medical Committee before the introduction of the NHS. He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and Guy's Hospital. Deciding on a career in surgery he held

Desmond Kyran Mulvany was born in Portsmouth on 8 July 1907, the son of Dr John Mulvany, a general practitioner and an alderman of the City of Portsmouth, and his wife Eileen. His early education was at St John's College, Southsea, and St George's College, Weybridge, before entering King's College H

Kenneth Gilchrist was Fiji's first surgeon specialist and principal of the Fiji School of Medicine from 1964 to 1970. He was born in London on 8 March 1910, the second son of James Gilchrist, a doctor and a graduate of Aberdeen University, and Constance Lilian Gilchrist née Osmond. He was educated a