Caroline Lessington-Smith was an ENT surgeon at King’s College Hospital, London. Born Caroline van Dorp on 25 May 1918, she was the daughter of a Dutch pastor based in London. She qualified at the London School of Medicine for Women in 1941 and, choosing ENT as a career, she became senior registrar

Henry Byrne was an orthopaedic surgeon in Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Ballarat, Victoria, on 15 August 1932, the eldest of five children of Henry Byrne, a grazier, and his wife Martha. He was educated at Ballarat State School and Ballarat College, before studying medicine at the University

Ivor Levy was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. He was born in Manchester on 29 June 1941 and educated in Manchester, at Pembroke College, Oxford, and at the London Hospital. After junior appointments, he held a research fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Inst

Hartley Shawcross, a barrister, Labour politician and an honorary fellow of the College, will be perhaps best remembered as the leading British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. He was born on 4 February 1902, the son of John and Hilda Shawcross. He was educated at Dulwich College, th

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

Brian Cummins was a consultant neurosurgeon at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. He was born in Somerset on 10 March 1933, the son of Peter Cummins (known as ‘Cecil’ or ‘Pop’) and his wife, Rita. His early years were spent in Bath, but he moved to Edmonton, Alberta, in 1946, when his family emigrated to

Francois Darné was an eminent surgeon in Mauritius and, as a former ambassador to France, a renowned diplomat. During the war he served in the Emergency Medical Service in London and also gave lectures in anatomy at the University of Cambridge and at UCL, where he was the first Mauritian to be appoi

Will Davey wrote the first textbook on surgery in tropical countries. He was born on 28 February 1912 in Dunmurry, near Belfast, in Northern Ireland. His father, Robert, was a minister of religion. His mother was Charlotte née Higginson. One of a family of five, he studied medicine at Queens Univers

Albert Davis was an obstetrician and pioneering neuro-gynaecologist. He born on 4 January 1904 into a Jewish family in Manchester, where he studied medicine and became resident at the Manchester Royal Infirmary to Sir Harry Platt and Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, who greatly influenced him. He soon de

Robin Denham was an orthopaedic surgeon in Portsmouth. He was born on 18 April 1922, and studied medicine at St Thomas’s medical school in London, qualifying in 1945. He was a senior registrar at Rowley Bristow Hospital in Pyrford and at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey. He was subsequently appointed t

Trevor Dinning, known since childhood as ‘Jim’, was the architect of neurosurgical services in South Australia and the creator of a very successful research foundation. He was born in Dulwich, Adelaide, on 16 February 1919, the second child of Alfred Ernest Dinning, a school inspector and later head

Alfred John Drew, known as ‘Jack’, was a former consultant general surgeon in Walsall. He was born in Ceylon on 17 February 1916, the son of the chief pilot for the harbour at Colombo. He was educated at Nuwara Eliya, and was then sent to Ipswich School at the age of 11. He became head boy and rugby