John Reginald Thompson was born on 13 March 1917 in Paignton, Devon, the son of John Thompson FRCS, GP surgeon of Torquay and Paignton and Elsie, née Royle. His mother was one of the first women to qualify as a doctor when she passed the MD in Manchester in 1909. He was educated at Sherborne School

Paul Brian Counsell moved to Bermuda as a consultant surgeon in 1958 and for several years was the only general surgeon there. Isolated in Bermuda, he carried out general surgery in the widest sense, performing abdominal surgery, orthopaedics, genito-urinary surgery, and an occasional Caesarean sect

Terence Kennedy was born in Plymouth on 12 December 1919 to Charles Matheson Kennedy, MBE FRCS, former surgical first assistant at the London Hospital and consultant surgeon at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Plymouth, and Mabel Maud, née Hore, a nurse. His grandfather had qualified at Trinity, Dublin

Horatio Orishejolomi Thomas was a distinguished alumnus of Birmingham University Medical School. He was the first Nigerian surgeon to become FRCS and in April 1962 he was invited by the Federal government of Nigeria to establish a medical school and teaching hospital at Lagos. Later in that year (Se

Ken Wilkinson qualified from St Mary's Hospital in 1942. After house jobs he served in the RNVR as surgeon lieutenant, returning to complete his training at the Canadian Red Cross Hospital, Taplow. He was a true general surgeon, and although his main interest was in urology, he resisted the separati

Anthony Partridge was born on 8 February 1920, in London, the son of Walter Partridge, a dental surgeon, and Evelyn Edgar. After education at Framlingham College, Suffolk, he entered Charing Cross Hospital where he qualified and held appointments as house surgeon in general surgery, and as house sur

William Hamer, son of William, a chartered accountant, and his wife, Alice Marjorie, née Evans, was born in London on 22 July 1919. From Boston Grammar School and Oakham School, Rutland, he went to St Mary's Hospital, London. He held house appointments at the Postgraduate Medical School and was infl

John Francis Neil Ward-McQuaid, the son of Colonel John FTP Ward-McQuaid and his wife Enid Ecila, née Cheshire, was born on 30 December 1918 at Neston, Cheshire. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, where he won several prizes and was a notable cricketer. As the son of a serving army o