John Le Messurier Kneebone was born in Adelaide on March 25, 1890, the eldest son of John Henry and Mary Matilda Kneebone, of Woodville, Adelaide. He was educated at Pulteney Grammar School where he was dux in each form. He won a scholarship to St Peter's College for three years where he was dux, wi

Nicholas Ernest James was born on 20 August 1912 in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of the Congregational Minister. The family returned to England in 1928 and he completed his schooling at Latymer Upper School and then went to the London Hospital where he graduated with honours in medicine in 193

Gerrit Mes was born at Dubbeldoorn, the Netherlands, on 30 June 1903 and went to South Africa with his parents in 1914. His father was a general medical practitioner at Bronkhorstspruit. After matriculating in Pretoria, Mes was a teacher for one year at Dullstroom before he enrolled for a three-year

Arthur Chance was born in Dublin on 15 November 1889, the third son of Sir Arthur Chance, past President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1904 and 1905 and surgeon to the Marta Hospitals, and Martha, née Ronnaey. He was educated in Kildare and the Trinity College, Dublin. As a student

Born in 1876 in Oldham, Lancashire, David Wylie was educated at Manchester Grammar School and University, winning the surgical clinical prize in 1897 and qualifying in 1898 with first class honours. After two years in resident posts at the Royal Infirmary he served as a civil surgeon in the Boer war

Chandra Tiwari was a surgeon based in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. He was born in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, the son of Shiva Ram Tiwari, a landlord and agriculturalist, and Shushila Tiwari, the daughter of an ayurvedic practitioner. He was educated in Etawah and Kanpur and then attended Allalabad Uni

Puspanathan Sadasivan Vaithilingam was born in Durban, on 19 September 1927, the eldest son in a family of eight brothers and one sister. His father, Sadasivan Vaithilingam, was a successful farmer, and his mother was Pappathee, née Reddy. After schooling at Sastri College he emigrated to Scotland i

Son of a pastoralist, Donald Wallace Fleming ("Don" or sometimes "Walt" to his friends) was born in Carnarvon 2 January 1917. He attended the local primary School in Carnarvon then Guildford Grammar School in Perth, completing his schooling in 1934. In those days, to do medicine it was necessary

Jack Stevens was born in Ingleton in Yorkshire and was proud of his West Riding roots. He won a scholarship from his school to Christ College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in the rowing club, as well as academically. He graduated MA, MB ChB in 1949, and spent two years as a National Ser

Peter Islwyn Hywel-Davies was born on 3 July 1914 at Abercynon, Glamorgan, and was educated at the Central School, Aberdare, and Cardiff University where he took the BSc degree in 1933. He then came to the Middlesex Hospital where he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1936, and took the London M

Ian Harris was surgeon to the government of Brunei. He was born in Adelaide in 1920. His father had emigrated from Scotland, and Ian himself felt profoundly Scottish. He interrupted his medical studies to join the Royal Navy during the second world war. In the North Sea and later in the Mediterranea

Anders Langenskiöld was a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon in Helsinki, Finland. He was born in Helsinki in 1916. He wrote a doctoral thesis on electrophysiology under the Nobel laureate Ragnar Granit and worked in field hospitals during the war with the Soviet Union, before graduating in medicine