Hans Georg Borst, head of the division of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery at Hannover Medical School, Germany was an internationally renowned cardiovascular surgeon who made major contributions to the surgical treatment of aortic aneurysm and aortic dissections, and to the development of cardiac

David Hamilton was a surgeon whose major interest became surgery for congenital heart defects. He built up an outstanding department at the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital and was the foundation professor of cardiac surgery at Edinburgh. He was born on 22 June 1931 to John Alexander King Hamilto

Professor Marc de Leval, a leading paediatric heart surgeon, established the heart transplant unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, and was a pioneer of patient safety and risk management research. He was born on 16 April 1941 in the village of Charneux in Belgium, the eldest of seven childr

Frank Harland Mills was a pioneering Australian heart surgeon. He was born on 20 June 1910 in Armidale, New South Wales, and grew up on the south coast of the state, mostly around Ulladulla. Frank's mother died when he was young, and his father, a local magistrate, had to raise Frank, his brother Ro

Kenneth Grant Reid was born in Glasgow in 1938 and after early education entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1962. He was appointed house surgeon at Paddington General Hospital, house physician at St Mary's and later senior house officer in the casualty department at Central Mid

Harry Annamunthodo was born on 26 April 1920 in British Guiana, now Guyana. He was proud to claim as an ancestor an Indian Sepoy transported after the Mutiny. He was educated at Queen's College, Georgetown, before entering the London Hospital Medical College in 1941, at that time evacuated to Cambri

Marvin Sturridge was a consultant thoracic surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, London. He was born on 12 September 1926 to Frank Sturridge, a doctor, and Helen Sturridge. He was the third son of what was to be a family of seven brothers and a sister, Gloria, who only lived ten days. He and all his si

Eoin Aberdeen was born in Melbourne in 1924 and qualified in medicine there in 1948. Before coming to England in 1955 he was a medical and surgical registrar at the Royal Children's Hospital and a flying doctor in North-West Australia. After a spell in the burns unit at Birmingham he became surgical

Wilfred Gordon ‘Bill’ Bigelow, who helped develop the first electronic pacemaker, was a professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Toronto and a pioneering heart surgeon. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1913. His father, Wilfred Bigelow, had founded the first medical clinic in Canada. Bi

James Lawrence 'Jim' Monro was a cardiac surgeon at Southampton General Hospital, where he successfully developed the service for infants and children. Jim's medical lineage could hardly have been stronger. He was born in Singapore on 17 November 1939, at the start of the Second World War, the son o

Denis Melrose played a crucial role in designing and developing the first heart-lung machine. He was born in Cape Town on 20 June 1921, the son of Thomas Robert Gray Melrose, a surgeon, and Floray Collings. The family went to England before the Second World War, and Denis was educated at Sedbergh an

Victor Chang was born in Sydney in 1936 and received his medical training at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. After qualifying in 1960 he came to London to train in cardiothoracic surgery at the Brompton Hospital, spent a year at the Mayo Clinic, and returned to St Vincent's in 1972, where he won an i