Francis Sandor was born in Budapest on 13 July 1905. His father, Ignac, was a businessman in Budapest and his mother, Jenni Cipszer, was a teacher. He left Hungary with the advent of Communism and went back to medical school in Edinburgh and re-qualified as LRFPS (Glasgow) in 1952. He originally tra

Charles Marks was professor of surgery at Louisiana State University, New Orleans. He was born in Kremenchug, Ukraine, the son of Abe Marks, a businessman, and Sonia Marks née Beck, a housewife. He migrated to South Africa, where he matriculated from Wynberg Boys’ High School in Cape Town in Decembe

Andrew Logan was a pioneer of cardiothoracic surgery in Edinburgh. He was born in Dairsie, Fife on 6 November 1906. His family were farmers. He left school at 16 and went to St Andrews University, gaining an MA in 1926. He then turned to medicine, qualifying in 1929. He went on to train in Newcastle

Eoin Aberdeen was born in Melbourne in 1924 and qualified in medicine there in 1948. Before coming to England in 1955 he was a medical and surgical registrar at the Royal Children's Hospital and a flying doctor in North-West Australia. After a spell in the burns unit at Birmingham he became surgical

Mahmood Ahmadi was a surgeon at the Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. He was born into a privileged family in the small agricultural village of Vastan in Iran not far from Tehran. As an infant, he survived an earthquake to which many of his siblings succumbed. Growing

John Stuart Bailey (or 'JCB') was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon in Leicester. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, and spent his early years in Cairo, before being evacuated in 1940 to Durban and on to England. He was educated at Sherborne School, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and St

Robin Pilcher was born on 22 June 1902 in Northwood, Middlesex, into a family without medical connections, although his younger brother Michael was to follow him into surgery. His father was Thorold Sturtevant Pilcher and his mother Helena, née Neilson. He was a scholar at St Paul's School and a pri

Born in Rotterdam on 25 February 1897, the son of a teacher who moved to the Dutch East Indies in 1905, Eerland spent part of his childhood in what is now Indonesia, a land for which he retained a life-long affection. He received his professional education at the faculty of medicine in Utrecht from

Hans Georg Borst, head of the division of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery at Hannover Medical School, Germany was an internationally renowned cardiovascular surgeon who made major contributions to the surgical treatment of aortic aneurysm and aortic dissections, and to the development of cardiac

Kingsley Lawrance was born in London on 22 July 1924, into a Quaker family. His father, Henry, was a builder and contractor. His mother was Elsie Ruth née Ramsbotham. He was educated at Highgate School, from which he went to St Bartholomew's, qualifying in 1946. After a year on the house at Bart's,

John Gibbons was born in Moseley, Warwickshire, on 26 November 1926. His father, Leonard Norman Gibbons, who had been severely gassed in the trenches during the First World War, later became legal adviser to the Birmingham Gas Board. His mother was Gladys Elizabeth née Smith, a secretary. John was e

The recent death of Ivan Lichter ONZ has deprived New Zealand medicine of an extraordinary talent. Not only did Ivan have a very successful career as a thoracic surgeon but he went on to become a leading authority and visionary in the care of the terminally ill patient. Ivan was born in South Afr