'Dan' Desmond was born in London on 18 August 1912, the second son of Dennis William Andrew Desmond, a pharmacist, and Violet Amy née More. He was educated at St Aloysius College, Highgate, and the London Hospital, where he qualified in 1934, and was house surgeon, receiving room officer, and clinic

Margaret Louden was a former consultant surgeon at South London Hospital for Women and Children. She was born on 6 April 1910 in Palmers Green. She attended St Paul's School, from which she was admitted to the London School of Medicine for Women (now the Royal Free) in 1928, with exhibitions from St

Andrew Geoffrey Butters was born in Kempston, Bedfordshire on 5 April 1911, the third child of George Butters, a general practitioner. In early childhood he suffered from a gross speech defect and also from congenital myopia. His disabilities were so severe that at the age of eight he was unable to

Frank Evans was a consultant general surgeon in Liverpool. He was born in Ffynnongrowy, a small mining village in north Wales on 20 May 1910. His father Evan Evans was the local GP, who had originally been apprenticed to a qualified doctor and by the time he started medical training in Glasgow had a

Born in 1910, Francis Rundle was educated in Newcastle and graduated from Sydney University Medical School with first class honours and the University Medal in 1932. During his early training in the competitive environment of the university hospitals in London, he won the Jacksonian Prize of the Col

Ralph Harrison Gardiner studied medicine at Oxford University, King's College Hospital, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and in Vienna. After an early appointment at Grimsby District Hospital in the late 1930s he moved to Buckinghamshire where he spent the rest of his career, eventually be

Henry Shucksmith was the third child of Thomas Warth Shucksmith, a farmer of Alvington, Lincolnshire, and his wife Fanny White, whose father was a blacksmith. He was educated at the Alvington and North Coederington Church of England Elementary School followed by the King Edward VI Grammar School, Lo

John Reginald St George Stead was born in Grahamstown, South Africa, on 20 June 1908. His father was William Yewdall Stead, a missionary priest, and his mother, Miriam Peterson, was the daughter of an architect. He was the sixth child in the family and the third boy. He was educated at St Andrew's P

Charles Bliss qualified in England but emigrated to New Zealand, where he worked in Whangaparaoa. At one time he served in the Indian Army. His diaries, notes and papers were given to the National Library of New Zealand. He died on 18 January 1997, survived by his three sons, Paul, Anthony and Simon

Thomas Stewart Heslop was born in South Shields, the son of a schoolmaster, on 18 March 1907. He was educated at Blackburn Grammar School and Manchester University, where he graduated with first class honours in 1931, gaining the medal in medicine. After two years in the anatomy department under Pro

Noel Kirkman was born in Boothroydon, near Blackpool, on 11 March 1911, the son of William Harold Kirkman, the owner of a small wrought iron works, and Lavinia, née Fereday, one of whose ancestors was Samuel Day Fereday, a general surgeon in Dudley, Worcestershire (1800-1874). He was educated at Wes

Arthur de Sa, the fifth child of Lawrence and Clementine de Sa, was born in Bombay on 13 June, 1910. After education at Antonio da Silva High School, Bombay, he matriculated and secured an entrance scholarship to Elphinstone College, from whence he obtained a Junior Government Scholarship. After sec