Donald Simpson was born 91 years ago into a Unitarian family with a strong tradition of learning and service. He grew up in Burnside in the Adelaide foothills and travelled to school at St Peters College by pony or bike. He lived and died close to his original family home. His academic record was

James Hardman was born and brought up in Birmingham, the son of William Henry Hardman, a chemist, druggist and shopkeeper, and Florence Lilian Hardman. He entered the Birmingham Medical School where he obtained his Primary Fellowship as student prosector in anatomy gaining the Peter Thompson Prize f

Jack Crawford was born on 19 November 1917 and received his education at Brentwood School and the London Hospital Medical College. After graduation he obtained a post in the clinical laboratory before his house appointments at the London. In September 1939 he became house surgeon to Douglas Northfie

James Hamilton was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Midland Centre for Neurosurgery and Neurology, Smethwick, and the United Birmingham Hospitals. He studied medicine at Guy's and qualified in 1947. He gained his FRCS in 1954. Prior to his consultant appointments he was a house physician in the n

Bernard Fairburn, the son of Lazarus and Leah Fairburn (née Margolin) was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on 3 August 1916. He was educated at Bec School, Battersea, securing an arts scholarship in 1933 before entering the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in the following year. He qualified MRCS,

Peter Gortvai, the only son of William, an obstetric surgeon and his wife Elizabeth, née Foldi, LDSRCS, was born on 1 December 1927. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he completed his Natural Sciences Tripos in 1951 and won the Tripos prize. He then went to the London Hospital from 1951

‘You can teach a monkey to operate, but you can’t teach a monkey when not to operate.’ Many, especially on the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies’ training courses, will remember John Garfield’s pithy one-liners. That was the epitome of John – serious, but everything had to be fun and w

Professor Jacquez Charl ‘Kay’ De Villiers was head of the department of neurosurgery at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk

Peter Wilson was a meticulous neurosurgeon at Swansea who was committed to the highest standards of clinical care and fostered the same work ethic in his colleagues. He was born in Portsmouth on 8 April in 1933, the elder son of Herbert Wilson and Kathleen Wilson née Humphries. His father was an

Douglas Phillips (or Dougie to those fortunate enough to be close to him) was a consultant neurosurgeon and surgeon in charge of the regional neurosurgical unit in Bristol. He was born in New Zealand on 6 May 1912 in Kumara, Westland and obtained his MB ChB in 1935. His house officer appointments we

Born on 6 May 1884 in Nevada City, he graduated in science and medicine from the University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco. He studied at Johns Hopkins during Harvey Cushing's last year there, 1913, and during the first world war went on active service in Europe. He returned to San Francisco

He was born in South Australia 26 June 1896 son of William Cairns, a carpenter and builder of Port Pirie near Adelaide, and Amy Florence Bell his wife; both parents survived their son. William Cairns was a collateral relative of the Ulster family, whose most famous member Hugh, 1st Earl Cairns (1819