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

Frederick Ridley was born in Birmingham, where his father was a schoolteacher. Having graduated BSc at Birmingham in 1922 he took the MB, BS in 1925 and the FRCS in 1928. As a young man he worked with Fleming on lysozyme, and his basic work on purification helped in the subsequent development of pen

Geoffrey Edward Parker was born on 24 June 1902 and was educated at Windlesham House School, Hove, Marlborough College, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He came to St Thomas's Hospital for his clinical course and qualified with the Conjoint Diploma and the Cambridge MB in 1926. Two years later he took t

Alan Campbell Gairdner was born in Surbiton on 4 July 1900. Both his father and grandfather were general practitioners. He was educated at Tonbridge School and, for the last six months of the first world war, served as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. After demobilisation he studied medicine at Un

Robert Lord Holt was born near Oldham on 18 May 1903 and educated at William Hulme's Grammar School, and Manchester University, where he qualified with many distinctions. He held numerous resident appointments in Manchester and obtained his Fellowship in 1928. In 1931 he was Dickson Travelling Schol

Thomas Vibert Pearce was born on 26 March 1900 and educated at Newport Grammar School, Isle of Wight. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service and became a pilot. Eighteen months later he entered St Thomas's and in 1923 graduated MB BS. Resident appointments followed at St Thomas'

Geoffrey Woodd-Walker was a consultant general surgeon at the West London Hospital from 1932 to 1965, and Vice-Dean of the medical school for many years before its merger with Charing Cross Hospital Medical School. He was born on 9 June 1900 in Bayswater, the only son of a general practitioner, D

Harvey Jackson was born on 16 October 1900 and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He studied medicine at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School and qualified with the Conjoint examination in 1923. One of his obituarists states that he had qualified in dental surgery and suppor

John Cridlan Barrett was born on 10 August 1897 in Leamington Spa where his father was a pharmaceutical chemist. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School from where he obtained a scholarship to St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. In the first world war he served as a Lieutenant in the 5th Battal

James Gore was born in South Shields, County Durham, on 17 May 1903, the younger son of James Gore, a civil servant in HM customs and excise, and Eliza née Morton. Both his parents hailed from Belfast; his mother from a medical family. Her brother was William Blair Morton, Professor of Physics at Qu

Joe Fathi was born in Cairo on 3 March 1903, the second child of Dr Bernard Fathi and Mrs Fathi (née Rowntree). He came to England at an early age to be educated; He was at the Friends' School, Wigton, Cumberland, from 1910 to 1917 and then at the Friends' School, Saffron Waldon, Essex, from 1917

Douglas MacLeod was born on 9 May 1901. Few families can have devoted so many members to the art of surgery. His great-grandfather, John MacLeod, MD was Surgeon to the Madras Presidency. His grand-father, Alexander Charles MacLeod (1819-1914), father, Charles Edward Alexander MacLeod (1867-1939), an