Born on 18 October 1899 at Dalmuir, near Glasgow into a seafaring family, Robert Scarff moved to London at the age of six when his father obtained a post ashore at Tilbury. Robert was educated at the City of London School and the Middlesex Hospital and he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1924,

Rupert Allan Willis, the elder of two sons of Benjamin James Willis, a banker, was born on 24 December 1898 at Yarram, Victoria, Australia. His mother, Mary Elizabeth Giles (née James), was the daughter of a congregational minister, and his younger brother, James Hamlyn Willis, was a well-known bota

Born on 11 September 1913, the second son of Henry James and Margaret Ann, Norman Henry Ashton was educated at the West Kensington Central School, King's College and Westminster Hospital. There he won the prize for bacteriology and was editor of the *Gazette*. After junior appointments, he specialis

Cuthbert Dukes, the son of a Congregational minister, was born on 24 July 1890 at Bridgwater, Somerset. He was educated at Caterham School and the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 1914. He served in the RAMC throughout the first world war attached to the Rifle Brigade, and was awarded the OB

Herbert Wilberforce Perkins was doubly qualified in surgery and dental surgery. He was the third son of a silk weaver, William Perkins, and his wife Eleanor (Whitworth). Born in London on 29 January 1881 he was educated at Dame Owen's (Brewers' Company) School, London, and at the Middlesex and Royal

Born at Exeter, 22 April 1863, the eldest son of Captain Alexander Foulerton of HM Indian Navy. He was educated at Kensington School and studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. In 1884 he served as assistant house surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, Chatham, when A W Nankivell was h

Donald Brian Cater was born on 14 September 1908 in Oundle, Northampton, the second son of a Congregationalist minister, Frederick Ives Cater, and his wife Emmeline (née Rayner). He was educated at Kathaleen Lady Berkley's Grammar School, Wotton-under-Edge and Caterham School, Surrey, before proceed

Jean Pringle (née Rankin) was head of the department of morbid anatomy at the Institute of Orthopaedics, London. She was born on 30 August 1936 to parents who were relatively elderly. Her mother was a teacher and her father was head of the technical college in Coatbridge, Scotland. He was over 60 at

Basil Morson was a consultant pathologist at St Mark’s Hospital, London and a pioneer of gastrointestinal pathology. He was born in Hampstead, London, one of three sons. His father, Albert Clifford Morson, was a urologist; his mother was Adela Frances Maud Morson née Phene. Through his father, he wa

Herbert Spencer was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on 8 February 1915, the son of Hubert John Spencer, a coat manufacturer, and his wife Edith Maude, née Lodge. His early education was at Highgate Junior and Senior Schools, and he entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School for his medical studies, wh

William St Clair Symmers held the Chair of Pathology at Charing Cross. He was born on 16 August 1917 in Belfast, where his father, William St Clair Symmers, an American who had been born in South Carolina and trained at the University of Aberdeen, was Professor of Pathology and Bacteriology, having

Sir Roddy MacSween, professor of pathology at the University of Glasgow, was unquestionably one of Scotland’s most distinguished medical practitioners of his time. He was, as the popular press once put it, ‘top doc’, a man with a huge range of interests, both within and outside the sphere of medicin