John Candy was born at Newport, Monmouthshire, on 8 January 1924, the son of Thomas Ignatius Candy, MD Belfast, a consulting radiologist. His paternal uncle was a general practitioner in Edinburgh. He was educated at Dolgelly Grammar School and Guy's Hospital Medical School which he entered in 1941.

Colm Galvin was born in Dublin on 2 August 1921. He was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, and studied medicine at St Vincent's Hospital, where he was house surgeon and resident surgical officer. He went to London to be house surgeon to the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, and then did regi

Ian James Gordon was a consultant surgeon in Bendigo, Australia. He was born in Aberdeen on 29 October 1924. His father, James Lendrum Gordon, was a mercantile marine officer and his mother, Mary Ironside Sherriffs, was the daughter of a farmer. He was educated at Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen,

Frank Haine was born in Little Wolford, Oxfordshire, on 13 November 1909, the eldest of four boys. His father, Robert John Haine, was a farmer who had moved from Somerset to the north Cotswolds after the death of his first wife. His mother, Marianne Baines Horne, was the daughter of a corn merchant

William O'Flynn was born in County Limerick on 12 April 1927, into a family with a long tradition in medicine as general practitioners. Unfortunately no details of his forbears are available. After education at Presentation College, Bray, County Wicklow he entered the National University of Ireland

John Stuart Martin was senior consultant otolaryngologist at Hull Royal Infirmary. He was born on 19 June 1917 in Robinstown, County Meath, and qualified from Queen's University Belfast in 1939. After completing his junior appointments in Belfast he joined the RAMC, where he served in North Africa a

Lou Opit was Professor of Community Medicine at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He was born in Curra Mulka, South Australia, on 22 November 1927. His father, Leon, was a medical practitioner, and his mother was Bertha née Goldman. He was educated at St Peter's Collegiate School, Adelaide, and

Robert (Robin) Welsh was born on 23 April 1928 in Witbank, Transvaal, South Africa, the eldest son of Dr Robert William Hepburn Welsh, a general practitioner in Pretoria for thirty years, and Evelyn Jessie Watson. He was educated at St John's College, Johannesburg, and the University of Witwatersran