Ramanand Kalbag (known as ‘Ram’) was the first Indian-born consultant in neurosurgery when he was appointed to the department of neurosurgery in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1964. Ram, the elder son of Mangesh and Uma Kalbag, was born on 6 March 1926 at his maternal grandparents’ home in Karwar, a town on

John Allwood McHardy was a neurosurgeon and chief medical officer of health in Jamaica. Known as Johnny to his family and friends, he was born in Jamaica, in Montego Bay, St James on 24 August 1926, the only son of Nathan Ralph McHardy, an assistant commissioner of lands, and Melaine Estelle McHardy

Douglas Phillips (or Dougie to those fortunate enough to be close to him) was a consultant neurosurgeon and surgeon in charge of the regional neurosurgical unit in Bristol. He was born in New Zealand on 6 May 1912 in Kumara, Westland and obtained his MB ChB in 1935. His house officer appointments we

Martin Rice Edwards was a consultant neurosurgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, London. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk

‘You can teach a monkey to operate, but you can’t teach a monkey when not to operate.’ Many, especially on the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies’ training courses, will remember John Garfield’s pithy one-liners. That was the epitome of John – serious, but everything had to be fun and w

Mukund Nagindas Dhruva was a neurosurgeon in Yakima, Washington, USA. He was born in Pansina in the state of Gujerat, India on 10 February 1934 to Nagindas Dhruva, a businessman, and his wife Champa whose maiden name was Shah. After attending the Sheth NTM High School in Surendrangar, he studied bio

Mike Briggs was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. He grew up in Norfolk and won a scholarship to Norwich School. Because of wartime damage to the school, they were unable to teach science subjects, so Mike had a classical schooling, but it never seemed to put him off. A

Glenn Neil-Dwyer was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Wessex Neurological Centre, Southampton. He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, where his mother, Violet Agatha Neil-Dwyer née Hussey, was a teacher in the local school. His father, Glen Shamrock Neil-Dwyer, was of the generation who left Jamaica to s

Robert David Weeks was born on 8 February 1927. He qualified in medicine at Oxford University in 1951 and trained at the London Hospital. After working in London as a senior registrar at the Middlesex Hospital and the Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases, he was appointed consultant neurosurgeon

Peter Wilson was a meticulous neurosurgeon at Swansea who was committed to the highest standards of clinical care and fostered the same work ethic in his colleagues. He was born in Portsmouth on 8 April in 1933, the elder son of Herbert Wilson and Kathleen Wilson née Humphries. His father was an

John Miles was a professor of neurosurgery at the Walton Centre, Liverpool. He was born in Mountain Ash, a mining village in south Wales, on 30 May 1936, one of five children of Benjamin Miles and Helena Miles née Owen. His father, a miner and a socialist, was blacklisted by mine owners and unemploy

Born on 5 October 1929, Ian Campbell Bailey came from an eminent Dublin family. He was the eldest son of James Rowland Bailey, a company director, and his wife Hilda Maud née Campbell, the daughter of Ottwell Campbell, a civil servant. Educated initially at Rathgar Boy’s Preparatory School, he then