Sir Patrick McEwen Forrest was regius professor of clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh. Pat, as he was known to all, was a giant of British and international surgery, and his contributions to the management of breast cancer were immense. He was born in Lanarkshire, the son of Andrew

Alan Rhodes was a consultant in general and paediatric surgery in Coventry. He was born in Wolverhampton on 1 April 1936 to Florence Rhodes née Levers, a secretary, and Wilfred Rhodes, a clerk. After a stellar performance at Wolverhampton Grammar School, he entered Birmingham Medical School in 1953.

Martin Cooper was medical director of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, and a consultant general surgeon. He was born in 1947. At 14, having had his appendix removed, he decided he wanted to become a surgeon. Three years later, at Forest Grammar School in Winnersh, Berkshire, his biology teacher

Michael McBrien was a general surgeon with an interest in urology at the West Suffolk and Newmarket hospitals. He was born on 4 July 1935 in Maidstone, Kent to Leo Patrick McBrien, a general practitioner, and Elizabeth Rosemary McBrien née Phillips, the daughter of a farmer, and had three sisters.

Cyril Cooling was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital and then medical superintendent of Benenden Hospital in Kent. The second son of Frank Cooling, a newsagent, and Lilian M Cooling née Waygood, he won the coveted Bucknill scholarship to enter University College Hospital in 1941, the