Douglas Donald Currie Howat was a consultant anaesthetist at St George’s Hospital, London. He was born on 10 January 1920, in Denholm in Roxburghshire on the Scottish borders. His grandfather ran a muslin factory in Glasgow, but his father, Reginald Douglas Howat, preferred the life of a country gen

Herbert Johann Scharlieb, he changed his name by deed poll in 1914, was born at Madras on 22 July 1868, the younger son and second of the three children of William Mason Scharlieb (died 1891), barrister of the Middle Temple, and Mary Ann Dacomb Bird, his wife, afterwards Dame Mary Scharlieb (1845-19

Born 6 August 1860, the son of Alexander Wilson, MD Aberdeen, who was then practising at 223 Lincoln Terrace, Stretford New Road, Manchester. A delicate child, he was sent at an early age to live with Scottish relatives at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, where he was taught in the Dryfesdale parish school

Thomas Cecil Gray was the first professor of anaesthesia at Liverpool University and undoubtedly one of the great British pioneers of modern anaesthesia. He was born in Liverpool on 11 March 1913, the son of Thomas Gray, a local publican, and Ethelreda Unwin. A devout Roman Catholic, Cecil was educa

Anaesthesia was introduced into surgery in 1846 and for the first 100 years little progress was made. It remained essentially a craft learned by experience rather than a science. Full-time anaesthetists were rare, anaesthetics being administered by general practitioners or any hospital doctors. The

Ashley Skeffington Daly was born on 12 July 1882, his father being an MD in practice in Hackney. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors School and the London Hospital and qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1905. He obtained the DA England in 1935 and was one of the first to practise anaesthetics as a speciali

Frankis Tilney Evans was born on 9 March 1900. He trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital but in the first world war was seconded to the RNVR during his clinical course, serving in destroyers on convoy duty and in minesweepers. Thus began a lifelong love of the sea and ships. Returning to Bart's he gra

Born 3 August 1856 at 2 Soho Street, Liverpool, the ninth child and sixth son of George Gill, MD JP, of Abercromby Square, Liverpool, and Mary Ann Hinchclife, his wife. He was educated at the Royal Institution, Colquit Street, Liverpool, and entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in October 1874, after g

Second son of Henry Willett, brewer, of Brighton, well known as a collector and antiquarian; cousin of Alfred Willett (qv). Educated at Wellington College, he matriculated in the University of Oxford from New College on Oct 15th, 1875, graduated BA with 1st class honours in the School of Natural Sci

William Derek Wylie was one of the leading anaesthetists of his generation. Born in Huddersfield in 1918, he was educated at Uppingham, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and St Thomas's Hospital, where he qualified in 1943. Initially he intended to become a physician and held junior appointment

Geoffrey Organe was born in Madras on 25 December 1908, the elder son of the Reverend William E H Organe KiH, a missionary, and his wife Alice, née Williams, the daughter of a mining engineer. His early education was at Taunton School before going to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was honorar

Ivan Magill was born at Larne, Northern Ireland on 23 July 1888 the son of Samuel, a draper and Sara (née Whiteside). He was educated at Larne Grammar School and Queen's University, Belfast, a strong young man of "enviable physique" being a rugby forward and a heavy-weight boxer for the university.