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

In 1873 gained the Exhibition in Zoology at the University of London Preliminary Scientific Examination, and then entered St Thomas's Hospital, where his student career was most brilliant. He carried off prize after prize, and at the end of his fourth year was awarded the Treasurer's Gold Medal, and

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

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

Ronald Jarman was born on 7 August 1898. At the commencement of the first world war, while still a schoolboy in the north of England and an active member of the Officers' Training Corps, he became attached to the Army Staff as a dispatch rider. Very soon, while still under age, he became attached to

Born about 1873 he was educated at Bristol medical school, held house appointments at the General Hospital and the Royal Infirmary, Bristol and at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and was for a time demonstrator of anatomy in the Bristol medical school. During the war of 1914-18 he served in the RAMC

Born on 28 March 1891, the son of Daniel Marston and Annie Bell, he was educated privately and entered Guy's Hospital in January 1909 as a dental student and the following year as a medical student also. Qualifying in 1915 he held a house appointment at Guy's and then entered the Royal Navy as a tem

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

Unfortunately the College lost touch with Alexander Gonsalves. He was born on 8 December 1935. After passing the FRCS he emigrated to Sacramento, California, where he was in practice as an anaesthetist at the Kaiser Permante Medical Centre. He died on 1 November 2001.

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.

Robert Reynolds Macintosh was born in Timaru, New Zealand, on 17 October 1897 the son of Charles N Macintosh, a surveyor who had been a member of the first rugby football team representing New Zealand abroad in 1893, and his wife Beatrice, née Thompson. He was educated at Waitaki Boys' High School a