John Patrick Richardson was born on 18 July 1928 at Port Pirie, South Australia. He was educated at the Christian Brothers' College in Adelaide from which he gained a Commonwealth Government Scholarship to study medicine at the University of Adelaide. He qualified in 1952 and after two years during

Kenneth Bloor was born on 14 May 1926, the son of William and Aida Bloor, of Earlstown, Lancashire. He was educated at Newton-le-Willows Grammar School, from where, with a county scholarship, he went to Manchester University, graduating MB ChB in 1949. He was house surgeon to Professor A M Boyd a

Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes was one of New Zealand's foremost cardiac surgeons. He was born on 13 January 1924, the son of Gerald Cave Boyes and Edna Myrtle, née Barratt. After qualifying, he was a lecturer in anatomy at Otago, and then house surgeon and registrar at Wellington Hospital. He was subseque

Marvin Sturridge was a consultant thoracic surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, London. He was born on 12 September 1926 to Frank Sturridge, a doctor, and Helen Sturridge. He was the third son of what was to be a family of seven brothers and a sister, Gloria, who only lived ten days. He and all his si

Trained at the North Middlesex Hospital during 1930-32 as a general surgeon, he also practised neurosurgery and cardiac surgery. He became a frequent visitor to European and Russian clinics, attending surgical conferences, and was one of the early visitors to Moscow, when brain operations were carri

David Hamilton was a surgeon whose major interest became surgery for congenital heart defects. He built up an outstanding department at the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital and was the foundation professor of cardiac surgery at Edinburgh. He was born on 22 June 1931 to John Alexander King Hamilto

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

Robert de Vernejoul was a prominent French cardiac surgeon. He was born on 19 March 1890 at Montcaret in the Dordogne. His father was a pastor. He came from a noble family, originally from the village of Vernajoul near Foix. His ancestors can be traced back to 16th century. He was educated at the Ly

Harris B Shumacker was chairman of the department of surgery at Indiana University and a pioneer of cardiovascular surgery. He was born on 20 May 1908 in Laurel, Mississippi, the son of Harris Blumenthal Shumacker and Corinne Selma Shumacker née Teller. He attended the University of Tennessee at Cha

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

Professor Marc de Leval, a leading paediatric heart surgeon, established the heart transplant unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, and was a pioneer of patient safety and risk management research. He was born on 16 April 1941 in the village of Charneux in Belgium, the eldest of seven childr

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