John Alexander-Williams was one of the country's best known gastroenterological surgeons noted not only for his surgical skill, teaching and many research contributions, but also for his *bonhomie* and *joie de vivre*, making him the life and soul of any meeting. John, often affectionately known

Alan Green was a consultant surgeon and urologist at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and a former president of the Travelling Surgical Society. He was born on 2 July 1927 in Leicester into a non-medical family. His father, Norman George Edwin Green, was a clerk for the Inland Revenue and his mother, Li

John Pendower was a consultant surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, London and Mayday Hospital, Croydon. He was born on 6 August 1927, less than ten years after the end of the First World War; his father had been a teenage infantryman on the Somme. He grew up through turbulent and exciting times, and