Pieter Van Miert was born in Ireland and educated in Dublin at the Catholic University School and at University College where he graduated MB with first class honours in 1943. He immediately joined the RAMC and served in England and India till the end of the second world war in 1945. During the next

Alexander Digges La Touche, the son of a general practitioner, was born at Ossett, Yorkshire, on 31 December 1899. On leaving Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield, he entered the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth before serving as an Executive Officer in the Royal Navy during the fi

Ralph Francis Phillips was born in London on 8 May 1903 the son of Lorraine Phillips, a printer, and Emma, née Kerrison. At the age of ten he went to Christ's Hospital, where he remained for nine years until he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. There he won the junior scholarship in

Arthur Jones was a pioneering radiotherapist. He was born in Wrexham, North Wales, on 1 February 1919. His father, Edward Hugh Jones, died when he was young and he was brought up by his mother, Margaret Lloyd Jones. He was educated at Grove Park School, where he became interested in physics, and his

Evan Sherrah-Davies, who was to make his career in radiotherapy, was born on 8 October 1922 in Rossendale, Lancashire. He was the son of the local general practitioner, also called Evan, who proudly kept a meticulous record of Evan's achievements, and his wife Amelia, née Oakley. After a series of p

Denys Sambrook did his medical studies at St Thomas's Hospital where he qualified in 1938. After junior posts in orthopaedics he decided to train as a radiotherapist and for a time worked as a consultant in radiation oncology at St John Regional Hospital, New Brunswick, Canada. After being appointed

Gwen Hilton was born on 22 September 1898, the daughter of Micaiah John Muller Hill, FRS, Professor of Pure Mathematics, University College, London, and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of London. Her mother was Minnie Grace, daughter of Marriott Ogle Tarbotton of Nottingham. Ther

Edwin (Ted) Monypenny was born in Sheffield in 1917, educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield, and qualified from Sheffield University in 1942. He was trained as a radiotherapist at the Royal Marsden Hospital, where he worked as a registrar, and in the Northern Ireland radiotherapy unit in Belf

David Waldron Smithers was born on 17 January 1908 in Knockholt, Kent, the home of his father Sir Waldron Smithers JP, stockbroker and staunchly Conservative MP, and of his grandfather Sir Alfred Smithers MP, chairman of the Canadian Grand Trunk Railway. A knighthood was clearly an obligatory achiev

Evan Sherrah-Davies went from Cambridge to the Westminster Hospital where he qualified in 1947. After house jobs he did his National Service in the RAF as a surgical specialist. After returning to civilian life he specialised in radiotherapy and became consultant radiotherapist to the Christie Hospi

Margaret Dorothy Snelling was a consultant radiotherapist at Middlesex Hospital and the first female President of the European Association of Radiology. She was born on 20 September 1914, and educated at Wimbledon High School for Girls. She went on to study at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medic

Born on 3 September 1908, Tony Green studied medicine at Otago University before coming to England in 1935 to specialise in radiotherapy. He held a number of junior posts and studied at the Radium Institute. A firm belief of his was that the effective treatment of malignancy should cause as little u