Ruth Valda Magnus worked as resident medical officer to the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, in 1956 and from 1958 to 1959. She was at the Royal Children's Hospital in 1957 and became a surgical registrar there, 1964-65. She became consultant paediatric surgeon at the Dandenong and District Hospital in V

George Macnab was born in Edinburgh on 12 March 1904, and went to school at Edinburgh Academy. He then proceeded to his medical studies at Edinburgh Unviersity and graduated in 1926. After house appointments in West Hartlepool and at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, he came to London and worked at th

Isabella Forshall was born and spent her childhood in affluent surroundings in Sussex. Details of her family are not recorded but she was educated privately at home where her mother, who read classics at Girton College, Cambridge in the 1890s, had a powerful influence, imbuing her with a keen apprec

Ambrose Jolleys was born on 25 September 1919 in Ireleth, Westmoreland. He was educated at Urmston Grammar School, Manchester, and graduated MB ChB from Liverpool University in 1942. He was appointed a consultant in 1952, the first full-time paediatric surgeon in Manchester. He was a true pioneer

Vanessa Wright was a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Royal London Hospital. She was born on 1 August 1943 in Chichester, Sussex, and studied medicine at University College, London, qualifying in 1966. She was a registrar at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton and at University Col

Thomas Twistington Higgins was born on 19 November 1887 in Bolton, Lancashire, his father having been Vicar of Congleton. He went to school at Pocklington in East Yorkshire, and then on an entrance scholarship to Manchester University where he graduated MB, ChB in 1909 with distinctions in medicine,

Andrew Wilkinson was the first Professor of Paediatric Surgery in the UK and as such received honours in many countries. Although his father was of Scottish extraction he was born in Taunton, Somerset, on 19 April 1914. He was educated locally and then at Weymouth College before going up to Edinburg

Harold Homewood Nixon (Nicky) was born in Newcastle on 27 February 1918, the son of Isaac Nixon, a chartered accountant. After early education at Fenham High School and the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for pre-clinical studies in 1935 and Durham

Roger Brereton was born on 31 March 1943 in Crewe, where his father was an electrical instrument maker for the railways. After local schooling he went up to Liverpool University Medical School where he graduated in 1966. His inclinations were at first towards obstetrics, taking the DRCOG, and it was

Archie Wilmot Middleton studied medicine at Sydney University. After qualifying in 1943, he was RMO at the Repatriation Hospital in Sydney for two years and then registrar at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney for another year. He came to London to specialise in surgery and was regi

Samia Salem was born in Alexandria in 1948, where her father Hassan Salem was Professor of Tropical Medicine and her mother, Ehsan Naby, was an art teacher. She was educated at the Lycée Français in Alexandria, and then accompanied her father to Iraq in 1964 where she qualified from the University o

Jeremy Lawson was a highly respected paediatric surgeon being on the consultant staff of three London hospitals, namely St Thomas’, Westminster Children’s and Great Ormond Street (honorary). He also had an attachment to Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. He was born in London on 1 July 1927, the