Frank Ellis was a consultant surgeon in Darlington and Northallerton. He studied medicine in Durham, qualifying MB BS in 1948 and gained his FRCS in 1955. Prior to his consultant appointment, he was a registrar at the Newcastle Regional Thoracic Surgical Centre and a senior surgical registrar at th

Sir John Cecil Nicholson Wakeley was a consultant general surgeon in Cheshire. He was born in London on 27 August 1926, the first of three boys of Cecil Pembrey Grey Wakeley and Elizabeth Muriel Wakeley née Nicholson-Smith. At the time of John's birth, his father was a surgeon and on the staff at Ki

Kevin Bridson Orr was born in Balmain, Sydney on 17 July 1927, the son of Clarence Montague Orr and his wife Vera Ruth née Bridson. He studied medicine at Sydney University and qualified in 1950. From 1950 to 1951 he was resident medical officer at the Grafton Base Hospital in Grafton, New South Wal

After qualifying in 1946 Raymond Bottoms held house officer posts at Mansfield Hospital and King Edward Hospital, Chesterfield, before doing his National Service in the RAF, where he was a staff specialist at Halton from 1949 to 1951. He obtained the FRCS in 1955, was a registrar at Mayday Hospital

John Heslop was born in Dunedin on March 21, 1925, the only child of James, an Irish immigrant, and Muriel. James died in his 50s and Muriel lived with John's family and played an important role in caring for her two grand-daughters as their parents developed increasingly busy professional careers.

Edward Ambrose Allcock was born in Leicestershire in either 1918 or 1919. He first visited Australia while serving as a surgeon lieutenant in the Royal Navy during the second world war. After passing the fellowship of the college in 1955, he returned and settled in Melbourne becoming a general surge

Sir William Slack, known as Willie to his friends and colleagues (but always William to his wife), was a much-admired surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital who served as a surgeon to the Queen for 15 years between 1975 and 1990. He was born on 22 February 1925 to Cecil Moorhouse Slack, who was awarde

Few surgeons lived their lives as fully as Desmond Albert Cooper, Dr Des. He was an astonishingly good surgeon, a fine man and a man of many talents. As my son said ‘The Doc was funny, generous, kind, helpful, clever, and friendly and a great sailor and a good fisherman.’ Before he died we chatt

Austin Edward Wheatley was born on 14 January 1927, and was educated at Emanuel School which was evacuated to Churcher's College, Petersfield, because of hostilities. He entered King's College London, in 1945 and commenced clinical studies at the Hospital in 1947, where he gained the Cheyne Prize in

Paul Kirton Pybus was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and St Mary's Hospital, qualifying in 1947. After house appointments at St Mary's and at the Royal Marsden, he became surgical registrar at St Alban's City Hospital. After gaining his Fellowship in 1955, he was appointed surgical registr

Alexander Gol read medicine at Cambridge University qualifying MB, BCh in 1949 and trained at Guy's Hospital. He became a Fellow of the College in 1955 and went to Chicago in the late 1950s where he practised at the Children's Memorial Hospital. He then moved to Houston, Texas, where he spent the re