Born on 1 October 1911 the only son of Alexander Mair, seed merchant, and Margaret Middleton his wife, he was educated at Turriff High School, Aberdeenshire and qualified from Aberdeen University in 1934. After serving as house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Oldham, and resident surgical officer at

Philip Rowland Allison, the son of J R Allison, was born at Selby, Yorkshire, on June 2 1907, and was educated at Hymers College, Hull. He was one of a family of five, two others of whom became doctors. He entered the Leeds Medical School in 1924 and had a brilliant career, taking the BSc with first

Solomon Reuben Taitz studied at the University of Rand in South Africa, and gained the MB BCh in 1940. In 1951 he passed both the Membership and the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He returned to South Africa and specialized in thoracic surgery. In October 1970 the College

Clement Price Thomas was born on 22 November 1893 at Abercam, Monmouthshire, where his father was a merchant. His mother's father was a minister of religion. He was the youngest of a large family and went to school first at Newport High School and later at Caterham School whence he passed on to the

David Skinner was an eminent American thoracic surgeon and one of the most influential individuals affecting surgical and medical care in the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century. He was born on 28 April 1935 in Joliet, Illinois, the first child of James and Bertha Skinner, and

Robert Christopher Barclay was a consultant thoracic surgeon. Born on 2 April 1916 in Chippenham, he trained at St George's Hospital and qualified from Cambridge University in 1942. Passing the fellowship in 1946 he was house surgeon at St George's and then resident medical officer at the Royal Canc

John Fairman Dark was a thoracic surgeon in Manchester. He was born in London on 18 April 1921, the son of Leonard Dark, a sales manager, and Dorothy Rose Dark née Fairman, a London Hospital nurse. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, where he won Harrison and Kitchener sc

Clem Grimshaw was a thoracic surgeon in Oxford. He was born on 15 May 1915, in Batley, Yorkshire, to a wool family and was educated at Woodhouse Grove, the local Methodist school, where he learned to play the organ. A Latin master encouraged him to go to Edinburgh. On qualifying, he spent a year i

Norman Barrett was born in Adelaide, Australia, on 16 May 1903. He was one of the great pioneers of thoracic surgery. After spending his early years in Australia he came to England and was educated at Eton where he was distinguished in both academic and athletic fields. He proceeded to Trinity Colle

William Corbitt Barnsley was educated at South Shields High School and graduated in medicine from Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne, where, as an undergraduate, he won many prizes and medals. After a period at Newcastle General Hospital, where he gained general experience in surgery, he proceed

Edward Delos Churchill was born in Chenoa, Illinois, in 1895. In 1920 he graduated from Harvard Medical School and spent the next four years at the Massachusetts General Hospital. For the next three years he was a Dalton Scholar with Cecil Drinker, and then held a Moseley Travelling Fellowship, whic

Bill Cleland was a pioneering thoracic surgeon who helped develop open heart surgery in London in the 1950s. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 30 May 1912, the son of Sir John Burton Cleland, professor of pathology at the University of Adelaide, and Dora Isabel Robson. He was proud to be th