Charles Raymond Helsby was born on 13 February 1921 in St Helens, Lancs, the son of a local businessman, Frederick Johnson Helsby and his wife Emily, née Cawley. Following the local infant school he attended Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and went on to the Liverpool Medical School. He qualified

Charles Clyne was born in Huddersfield on 3 February 1946, the son of a Czechoslovakian immigrant who had come to Britain in 1939. His early education was at St Bee's School in Cumbria, just five miles from the nuclear processing plant at Sellafield. He trained at Liverpool University Medical School

Michael Baddeley, universally known to a wide circle of friends as 'Mick', was a consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals. He was born at Wolstanton in Staffordshire on 20 September 1932, the elder son of a mining engineer. He was educated at Chesterfield School, Derbyshire, and the Uni

Colin Skelton was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 31 March 1935 and educated at Christchurch West High School and Otago Medical School. After house appointments at Christchurch Hospital and Grey Hospital, Greymouth, he became surgical registrar at Christchurch Hospital and then came to England

Trevor Layzell was a general and vascular surgeon at Bishop Auckland General Hospital. He was born on 2 February 1949 and studied medicine at Newcastle University, graduating in 1972. He started his career at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, followed by a move to Sunderland Roya

Justin Paul Fleming was born on 26 September 1917 in Sydney, the first son and second child of James Fleming, a hospital administrator, and Ethel Mary (née Downey). He was educated at St Patrick's College, Goulburn, New South Wales, Waverley College, Sydney, and the University of Sydney where he gra

Ian Christopher Gordon-Smith was born in 1941 and was educated at Haileybury, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and the Middlesex Hospital. He qualified in 1964. After house officer posts at the Middlesex he was surgical registrar at Cheltenham General Hospital, taking the FRCS in 1969. He then

William O'Flynn was born in County Limerick on 12 April 1927, into a family with a long tradition in medicine as general practitioners. Unfortunately no details of his forbears are available. After education at Presentation College, Bray, County Wicklow he entered the National University of Ireland

Alban Barros D'Sa was a consultant general surgeon at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. He was born in Nairobi, Kenya, into a Catholic family originally from Goa. Barros D'Sa later moved with his parents to Kisumu on Lake Victoria, where he went to school. He knew he wanted t

Maurice Feldman was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham. He was born in Cardiff on 7 August 1927, the youngest son of Lewis Feldman, a retail and wholesale trader, and Leah Feldman née Volozhen, a housewife. He was educated at Wood Street and Roath Park elem

Julius Karl Bremer was born in October 1922. He was educated at the high school in Graaf-Reinet and qualified MB ChB from the University of Kaapstad in 1935. During his years at the University he had a distinguished academic record and was elected to be chairman of the students' council. He won the

Michael Reilly was born in Sheringham, Norfolk, on 30 August 1913, several weeks post-mature. This procrastination was to be a feature of his life. There was a suggestion that he should be christened 'Fabius', after the great Roman general Fabius Maximus Cunctator, but he was saddled with the family