Harold Hassall was a consultant surgeon to the South Cheshire Group of Hospitals and the driving force behind the new Leighton Hospital. He was born in Radcliffe, Bury, Greater Manchester, on 3 February 1916, the son of Harold Hassall, a clockmaker, and Mary Hannah Hassall, a schoolteacher. He was e

Victor Stanley Brookes was an eminent Birmingham surgeon. His main surgical work was carried out at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he was a consultant for 25 years up until his retirement. He was a generalist in the traditional fashion with special interests in gastroenterology and colo-rectal

Gordon Stuart Ramsay was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal London Homeopathic, Metropolitan and Bromley hospitals, London. He was born on 11 December 1919 in Streatham, south London. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, and then St Bartholomew's Medical School. During the

Anthony (Tony) Dingley was born on 22 March 1922 at Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, the son of Eric Gordon Dingley, FRCS Edinburgh, senior surgeon at Warneford Hospital, Leamington Spa, and Marion (Moll) Bradshaw, a nursing sister in QARANC, who served in Iraq. His uncle, Allen Roy Dingley, was a co

John Howard Lees Ferguson was the third generation of a medical family. He was educated at Shrewsbury School where he was a classical scholar. Although pressed to continue in this field, he was determined to study medicine and entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before moving to the Middl

Born on 17 May 1914 at Wilsden, Yorkshire, George William Vause Greig was educated at Woodhouse Grove School, Apperley Bridge, and graduated in medicine with honours at Leeds in 1937. He joined the RAMC in 1939 and served in the Norway campaign of 1940 and later in India and Burma, attaining the ran

Caleb Tucker was born in Ashburton, the second of four children, of Edward, a timber and joinery business owner, and Elizabeth Tucker. Both parents were keen musicians, his mother a pianist and his father playing the cornet, and Caleb was encouraged to learn the piano. He was educated at Ashburton H

Raymond Ramsay was born on 19 August 1916 at Peddie, South Africa. He was the youngest child and second son of Alexander Orlando Ramsay, the owner of a trading post, and of his wife Florence, née Tanner. Both parents were born in England; his father (the twelfth child of a preparatory school headmas

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

Jeffrey Woodrow Betts was a consultant at Lincoln County Hospital. He was born in Elstree, Hertfordshire, on 20 March 1913, to John Betts, a newspaper proprietor and editor, and Hannah Woodrow, daughter of a farmer and mill-owner. He was educated at St Alban's School and King's College, London. He t

Fred Hunt was born at Ilkeston, Derbyshire, on 5 March 1899, the son of John Hunt, a schoolmaster, and his wife Clara, née Beardsley, who had seven children. He was educated at the Elementary School and the County Secondary School in Ilkeston, and entered the London Hospital Medical College in 1916,

Michael Roger Williams was born in London on 30 March 1921. He was the eldest son of Muriel, née Buckley, the daughter of Lord Wrenbury, Justice of Appeal, and Bernard Williams, consultant surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital. He attended Rose Hill Preparatory School in Banstead, followed by Oundle Schoo