John Holmes Tasker was born in London on 20 January 1917, the son of Dr Ludwig Tasker, a general practitioner, and May, née Gadsden, a registered nurse. He was educated at Epsom College before entering Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1935 with the Haviland exhibition. After completing pre-clin

Stephen Power was born in Reading in 1902 the son of a general practitioner in Stamford Hill in North London. He was educated at St Ignatius College and the London Hospital Medical School, graduating MB, BS in 1925. He was appointed house surgeon and subsequently clinical assistant at the London and

Frank Gordon Hollands was born in Bakewell, Derbyshire on 5 October 1912, and received his medical education at St Bartholomew's Hospital where he graduated in 1936. He served in the RNVR during the war and was then appointed surgical registrar to the United Birmingham Hospitals. He took the Edinbur

David Ronald Davies, always 'DR' to his friends, was born on 11 May 1910 in Clydach, Swansea, and remained readily identifiable as a Welshman throughout a long surgical career in London, followed by retirement to Exmoor. After schooling at the Ystalyfera County School, which inevitably gave him an e

Leslie Norman Pyragh was born at Farnley, near Leeds, on 11 April 1899, the son of a headmistress. Unfortunately no further details of his forbears are available. He was educated at Leeds Central High School and served in the army during the final stages of the first world war. He then read medicine

Denis George Calvert was a consultant surgeon at Gloucester Royal Infirmary. He was born in Belfast on 23 April 1928, where his father Thomas George Calvert was an insurance manager. His mother, Isobel née Stafford, was the daughter of the fire chief of Belfast. He was educated at Epsom and the Midd

Alexander McCalister (known as 'Alex') was a consultant general surgeon at the Ulster Hospital. He was born in Belfast on 6 June 1925 and grew up in rural Northern Ireland in relatively poor circumstances: his mother cooked on an open peat fire and they had no piped water in the home. His family sug

John Patrick Acton Weaver was a consultant urological surgeon at Dundee Royal Infirmary and a senior lecturer in surgery at the Universities of St Andrews and Dundee. He was born in Oxford, the son of John Reginald Homer Weaver, professor of history and president of Trinity College, and Stella Mary

Born at Stretford, near Manchester, on 2 February 1874, the second child and eldest son of John Henry Burgess, a merchant, and his wife, nee Sharrocks. He was educated at Rose Hill School, Bowden, Cheshire and, after a year in a shipping office, at Owens College, Manchester, where he won the Dalton

Nils Kock, professor of surgery and chief of the department of surgery II, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, was an eminent colorectal surgeon, widely known for his development of the 'Kock pouch', a continent pouch formed by using the terminal ileum after colectomy. Known as 'Nicke' to

Patrick Desmond O'Donoghue was a surgeon in Kenya. He was born in Kaiapoi, New Zealand, on 12 May 1922, the second son of Michael and Eva O'Donoghue. His father was a teacher and later schools inspector. Pat attended Christchurch Boys' High School, where he excelled in classics, sciences, literature

Roger Barritt Jones was a consultant surgeon and clinical director of surgery and urology at Rotherham General Hospital. He studied medicine at Manchester University, gaining a BSc in 1965 and graduating MB ChB in 1968. After house posts, he was an assistant lecturer in anatomy at Manchester Univer