James Oldfield was born in Sunderland on 10 July 1923. His father was Thomas Oldfield, a shipwright, and his mother was Annie, née Cockerill-Lawrence. He attended Bede Collegiate School, Sunderland, and then went to Durham University to study medicine on a Miners' Association Scholarship. He attende

Tony Low was born in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, on 27 June 1940. His father, David Irving Low, was a general practitioner. His mother was Dorothy Campbell née Byrns. He was educated at the Scots College, Sydney, and St Andrew's College, University of Sydney. He did junior posts at the Royal Princ

Eric William Riches, the second child and eldest son of William Riches, a schoolmaster, and of Kate Riches (née Rowbotham), was born on 29 July 1897, at Alford, Lincolnshire. He was educated at St Dunstan's, Alford, and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Alford, before securing an entrance scholarship

Harland Rees was born on 21 September 1909 at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, into a medical family. His father, David Charles Rees, was a specialist in tropical medicine and had served in Lugard's frontier force, which kept the French at bay in West Africa in 1897. Four years later, he went to South

John Cornelius Blair Serjeant was a consultant general surgeon and urologist at Shotley Bridge General Hospital, County Durham. He was born at Masham, Yorkshire, on 17 January 1917, the son of Robert Serjeant, a surveyor of HM Customs and Excise, and Agnes, his wife, formerly Blair, who was a teache

John Coxon was a consultant urologist in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He was born in Cambridge. His father, Thomas Coxon, was an industrial chemist with ICI; his mother was Florence Madelaine Proctor Coxon née Lucas. He was educated at Sedbergh School in Cumbria and then studied medicine at St Thomas’s

James Laurence Lewis was a consultant surgeon and urologist for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust based at Royal Tunbridge Wells. He was born in Los Angeles, California. His parents, Arthur Lewis and Evelyn Lewis née Eisner, moved to London when he was 14 and he went to St Paul’s School. H

Ian Hamilton was a consultant general surgeon and later consultant urologist at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro. He was born in Belfast as his father, William James Hamilton, an Irishman himself, wanted him to be eligible to play rugby for Ireland - regrettably something he never achieved. Ian wa

Richard Ticehurst was a consultant general surgeon and urologist in Hastings, Sussex. He was born on 3 November 1917 into an old medical Sussex family renowned for its expertise in English wildlife, his father having written the seminal work on swans. He had an older brother, Hugh, who became a loca

Hugh Fraser Anderson was born in Manchester on 19 April 1910, the son of William Thomson Anderson, a mining electrical engineer, and his wife, Madeleine, née Grubb. He was educated at King William's College in the Isle of Man. In 1929 he gained an entrance exhibition to Caius College, Cambridge, and

Alistair Campbell McEachern was born on 30 June 1904 at Mt Gambier, South Australia. He was the son of Alexander McLean McEachern, a grazier and his wife, Catherine Jane, née McFarlane. He was educated at Mt Gambier High School and entered the Adelaide High School with the Thomas Price Scholarship i

Tommy 'Tucker' Moore was welcomed in a great many surgical clubs and societies for his engagingly forthright interventions. His criticisms were pungent but invariably good-humoured, and he was very good company. He was born on 11 January 1909 in Sunderland, where his father and mother ran a newspape