John Grieve Whitaker was born in 1895, the son of a doctor who qualified in Belfast, and his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Grieve, was of Scottish descent. His father died when John was eight years old, and the family then moved to Canterbury, a suburb of Melbourne, where he was educated a

Gordon Stuart Baron-Hay was a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth, Western Australia. He was born in Perth on 26 June 1935. His father was George Kingston Baron-Hay, an agriculturalist; his mother, Vera, was a psychiatrist. He was educated at Wesley

Isabella Forshall was born and spent her childhood in affluent surroundings in Sussex. Details of her family are not recorded but she was educated privately at home where her mother, who read classics at Girton College, Cambridge in the 1890s, had a powerful influence, imbuing her with a keen apprec

Harold Homewood Nixon (Nicky) was born in Newcastle on 27 February 1918, the son of Isaac Nixon, a chartered accountant. After early education at Fenham High School and the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for pre-clinical studies in 1935 and Durham

Archie Wilmot Middleton studied medicine at Sydney University. After qualifying in 1943, he was RMO at the Repatriation Hospital in Sydney for two years and then registrar at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney for another year. He came to London to specialise in surgery and was regi

Jeremy Lawson was a highly respected paediatric surgeon being on the consultant staff of three London hospitals, namely St Thomas’, Westminster Children’s and Great Ormond Street (honorary). He also had an attachment to Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. He was born in London on 1 July 1927, the

Samia Salem was born in Alexandria in 1948, where her father Hassan Salem was Professor of Tropical Medicine and her mother, Ehsan Naby, was an art teacher. She was educated at the Lycée Français in Alexandria, and then accompanied her father to Iraq in 1964 where she qualified from the University o

Jay Grosfeld was, in the eyes of many, the foremost American academic paediatric surgeon of his time. A large man with a warm personality and an ever-present friendly smile, he was a wonderful host to visiting surgeons, a superb teacher and someone revered on both sides of the Atlantic by all who kn

Duncan Forrest was a distinguished member of that first generation of paediatric surgeons, most of whom trained at Great Ormond Street in the early years of the National Health Service, who pioneered specialist surgical units in children’s and in general hospitals across the country. Later in life h

Jimmy Lister was an emeritus professor of paediatric surgery at the University of Liverpool and a former vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Born in London on 1 March 1923, the son of Thomas Lister, a chartered accountant, and Anna Rebecca Lister, two of his siblings – John

Roger Edward Cudmore was a consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool. He studied medicine in Sheffield and then served for two years in a Methodist hospital in Nigeria. He was appointed consultant surgeon to the children’s hospitals in Liverpool in 1972, where he was truly a gen

William Giles Manson was a consultant paediatric surgeon at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh. He was born on 16 January 1965. He went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, qualifying MB ChB in 1989. He went on to train in surgery in Sheffield, Glas