Eric Price Clarke was born on 14 October 1913 at Blackburn, Lancs, the only child of Lancashire-born parents; his father, a graduate of Manchester University, was a schoolmaster, later joining the Home Office as an Inspector of Factories. Eric was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Blackbur

David Jenkins was born on 29 September 1917, at Llanrhystwd, near Aberystwyth, in Cardiganshire. His father, a language graduate and later HM Inspector of Schools in Wales, was then in the Army and only that month had been promoted Captain and awarded the Military Cross. Following the war the family

Athol George Riddell was born in Whitstable on 31 January 1917. He was educated at Folkestone and University College, London, where he gained the Gold Medal in physiology, graduating from University College Hospital Medical School in 1939. After holding a resident surgical post on the Professorial U

John Withycombe was born in Exeter on 11 August 1918. the son of Arthur John Withycombe, a barrister, and his wife Winifred Annie, née Kiddle. He was educated at Sherbome, Pembroke College, Cambridge, and the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, where lie qualified in 1942. After only one house job

Son of a pastoralist, Donald Wallace Fleming ("Don" or sometimes "Walt" to his friends) was born in Carnarvon 2 January 1917. He attended the local primary School in Carnarvon then Guildford Grammar School in Perth, completing his schooling in 1934. In those days, to do medicine it was necessary

John Hadfield was an outstanding teacher and ambassador for British surgery. He was born in Long Ashton near Bristol on 19 April 1923. His family hailed from Plymouth. His father, Geoffrey Hadfield, was professor of pathology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and later became the Sir William Collins prof