Max Harvey Ellis was an honorary surgeon at Blacktown Hospital, New South Wales. He was born in Bega, New South Wales on 8 September 1933. His father, Ashley Thomas Ellis, was a veterinary surgeon; his mother, Muriel Elizabeth Flora Ellis née Morrison, was the daughter of a grazier. He studied at Du

Peter Jennings was a consultant general surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, Rochester, and Medway Hospital, Gillingham. He was a big man and towered over the surgical department in the Medway towns during his career. He enjoyed his work as a general surgeon but, in his own words, written in 2008,

David Evans was a much admired general and vascular surgeon in Shrewsbury who became well known nationally in the latter part of his career for being in the forefront of hernia repair by minimal access surgery. He performed more than 2,600 such operations, giving a Hunterian lecture on his experienc

Colonel Noel Peters was a military surgeon, general surgeon and later consultant oncologist at the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, Woolwich. He was born in Hong Kong on 20 December 1931 to Rose Margaret Peters née Shea and William Henry Peters. He was the youngest child and only son with three el

Driving through an English snowstorm, on the way to board a ship and emigrate, Val Lishman’s mind was on fresh horizons. An Australian summer beckoned for him, wife Jean and three children. Six weeks later glaring reality hit. “We had read all about the beautiful Wildflower State but …everything see

Michael Du Preez (he did not use ‘Hercules’) was born in Cape Town on 19 November 1935, the son of Hercules James Du Preez, a company director, and his wife Josephine Florence née Koll. Educated at Rondebosch Boy’s School from 1944 to 1952, he proceeded to study medicine at the University of Cape To

Ivor Alwyne Sewell studied medicine at King's College Hospital, qualifying MB BS in 1955. A lecturer in surgery at Westminster Hospital Medical School at the start of his career, he then became senior registrar in surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. He was awarded a PhD for research into the microci

John Thomas Hobbs was a renowned vascular surgeon, researcher and educator. He was born on 18 January 1931 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, to John Leonard Hobbs and Winifred Maud Hobbs née Haynes. He qualified in 1954 at St Bartholomew’s Medical School, London, and spent the next three years as

Graeme Douglas Campbell was born in Eltham, Taranaki, the youngest of five children of dairy farmer Jack Campbell and schoolteacher, Winifred May Heather. Entering a sports-mad family (particularly rugby, tennis and swimming), he grew up on the family farm. After attending Eltham Primary School, Gr

Iain Gillespie was a professor of surgery at Manchester University and an honorary consultant surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Manchester, at the centre of the Industrial Revolution, and the location of one of the ‘redbrick universities’, was characterised by the championing of Nonconformist v

Julian Neely was a consultant surgeon in north Sussex, working at Crawley Hospital, Horsham Hospital and the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. His father, Geoffrey Cavendish Neely, was of Irish descent. He was a saxophonist who ran a dance band in London. His mother, Dorothy Isobel Bruce né

Desmond Ian Ralph Higton, always known as 'Ian', was a general surgeon in Bromley. He was born on 9 December 1934, the elder son of John William Higton, managing director of a coach building company, and Olive Gwendoline Higton née Smith. He was educated at Farnham Grammar School, Surrey, King's Col