Thomas Twistington Higgins was born on 19 November 1887 in Bolton, Lancashire, his father having been Vicar of Congleton. He went to school at Pocklington in East Yorkshire, and then on an entrance scholarship to Manchester University where he graduated MB, ChB in 1909 with distinctions in medicine,

John Grieve Whitaker was born in 1895, the son of a doctor who qualified in Belfast, and his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Grieve, was of Scottish descent. His father died when John was eight years old, and the family then moved to Canterbury, a suburb of Melbourne, where he was educated a

Vanessa Wright was a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Royal London Hospital. She was born on 1 August 1943 in Chichester, Sussex, and studied medicine at University College, London, qualifying in 1966. She was a registrar at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton and at University Col

Roger Brereton was born on 31 March 1943 in Crewe, where his father was an electrical instrument maker for the railways. After local schooling he went up to Liverpool University Medical School where he graduated in 1966. His inclinations were at first towards obstetrics, taking the DRCOG, and it was

Jimmy Lister was an emeritus professor of paediatric surgery at the University of Liverpool and a former vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Born in London on 1 March 1923, the son of Thomas Lister, a chartered accountant, and Anna Rebecca Lister, two of his siblings – John

Peter Rickham was one of a small group of pioneering surgeons who helped to establish the specialty of paediatric surgery in the UK. He was born in Berlin on 21 June 1917, where his father, Otto Louis Reichenheim, was professor of physics at Berlin University. His mother was Susanne née Huldschinsky

Gordon Stuart Baron-Hay was a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth, Western Australia. He was born in Perth on 26 June 1935. His father was George Kingston Baron-Hay, an agriculturalist; his mother, Vera, was a psychiatrist. He was educated at Wesley

Ambrose Jolleys was born on 25 September 1919 in Ireleth, Westmoreland. He was educated at Urmston Grammar School, Manchester, and graduated MB ChB from Liverpool University in 1942. He was appointed a consultant in 1952, the first full-time paediatric surgeon in Manchester. He was a true pioneer

Peter Jones was a paediatric surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. He was born in Melbourne on 26 September 1922. His father was William Aeron Jones, a former President of the Australian Veterinary Association, and his grandfather was David Jones, a Welsh sea captain. His mother, Elsi

Gamini Wickramarachchi Karunaratne, or 'Gam' as he was always called, was a pioneer of paediatric surgery in Sri Lanka. He was born in Kamburugamuwa, southern Sri Lanka, on 19 April 1929. His father was Wilson Karunaratne and his mother was Tilaka. He had two brothers and five sisters. His early sch

Samia Salem was born in Alexandria in 1948, where her father Hassan Salem was Professor of Tropical Medicine and her mother, Ehsan Naby, was an art teacher. She was educated at the Lycée Français in Alexandria, and then accompanied her father to Iraq in 1964 where she qualified from the University o

Joanna Marcia Catherine Zlotnik was a paediatric surgeon. Born on 26 July 1943 in Edinburgh, she was the eldest child of Izrael Zlotnik, an experimental neuropathologist and his wife Amelia née Vinestock. Educated initially at St Hilary’s School in Edinburgh, she then attended Boroughmuir Senior Sec