Dr John Lawrence Bignell, a leading ophthalmologist in Melbourne for many years, died on Monday 31 October 2005 after a long illness. John was born in Melbourne on 24 May 1917, the second son of Colonel and Mrs F Bignell; his father was also a doctor and served in France in the First World War. J

Anthony Gordon Palin was born in Wallington, Surrey, on 29 July 1907, the son of Frederick Palin, a barrister. He was educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate, Oxford University and St Thomas's Hospital, qualifying in 1933. After completing post-graduate training he was appointed consultant ophthal

David St Clair Roberts was a consultant ophthalmologist at Sussex Eye Hospital, Brighton. He was born on 28 February 1922 in Worcester, the only child of Bernard Hamilton St Clair Roberts, an ophthalmic surgeon, and Jane Elizabeth Roberts née Williams. He was educated at Marlborough College and then

Isidore Spiro served in two world wars. In the first world war he served as an ordinary infantryman in France. He was prevented from sitting the Final FRCS examination in 1939 because he had been called up, and when he eventually obtained leave from the British Expeditionary Force in order to sit he

Roger Trimble was born in Holyhead, Anglesey, on 19 November 1946, the son of Henry John Trimble, a farmer, and his wife Barbara Margaret, née Gill, a writer. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Sheffield University, where he qualified in 1969. After a series of medical and surgical posts

Kenneth Wybar was a man whose extraordinary energy and tireless capacity for work (he was known as the 'Flying Scot'!) soon brought him to the forefront in ophthalmology, but was a little apt to put his colleagues to shame! He was born on 2 March 1921 in Glasgow, where his father was an actuary, and

Ian Alexander Mackie was an associate specialist in the external eye diseases clinic at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, and at St George's Hospital. He studied medicine at Aberdeen, qualifying in 1954, and held house posts in the city, at Woodend General Hospital and the Royal Infirmary. He gained

Born 22 May 1877 at Dursley, Gloucestershire, the fourth son and youngest of the six children of William Lister, engineer, and his wife, née Fraser. He was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, and at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was Brackenbury scholar in surgery in 1901 and dressed for

Born on 22 July 1875 the only child of Ernest Wirgman and Mary Williams his wife, he was educated at Harrow and University College Hospital, where he served as ophthalmic house surgeon. He was clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, and practised throughout his career

The son of a Birmingham physician, served an apprenticeship, then studied at the Birmingham General Hospital and at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He began practice as a general surgeon, was Surgeon to the King's Norton Union near Birmingham, to the General Dispensary, the Birmingham Orthopedic Hospital

Brian Harcourt was born on 3 March 1934, the son of John Ellison Harcourt, a scientific instrument manufacturer in Liverpool and Bertha Florence Kneen. His grandfather, Richard Eugene Harcourt FRCS (1858-1921), was an ophthalmic surgeon, also in Liverpool. Harcourt was educated at Quarry Bank High S

Munawar Ahmad was educated at Punjab University and graduated MB BS in 1961 from King Edward Medical College, Lahore. After house appointments at the Mayo Hospital he took his primary FRCS in Lahore, and went to the USA in 1962 as an intern. Three years later he came to Britain and started his ca