Brodie Hughes was born in Broadstairs, Kent, on 21 September 1913, the son of E T C Hughes, MRCS, assistant medical superintendent of Lewisham Infirmary. He was educated at Eastbourne College and University College, London, before going to University College Hospital for clinical studies. He qualifi

Jack Small was born on 18 March 1913 in Birmingham, the son of Ernest Small MBE, a mechanical engineer who designed the barrage balloon winches used in air defence in the second world war, and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth, née Morton. Jack was educated at Wylde Green College and Birmingham Universit

John Fraser Shaw was a neurosurgeon who trained under, and then assisted, Norman Dott with his pioneering work. He was, in his own words, 'fortunate' to arrive at this position - 'lucky' to serve under Dott at the neurosurgical department of the Edinburgh Western General. John was born in Calcutta i

John Currie was head of the neurosurgical department at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He was born on 1 July 1926 in Darlington, County Durham. His father was a practising physician in Darlington who had trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and served as a doctor in the First World War

John Allwood McHardy was a neurosurgeon and chief medical officer of health in Jamaica. Known as Johnny to his family and friends, he was born in Jamaica, in Montego Bay, St James on 24 August 1926, the only son of Nathan Ralph McHardy, an assistant commissioner of lands, and Melaine Estelle McHardy

John Potter was a consultant neurosurgeon and director of postgraduate education at Oxford. He was born in London on 28 February 1920. His father, Alistair Richardson Potter, was a brewer. His mother was Mairi Chalmers née Dick, a housewife whose father had edited the songs of Robert Burns. He was e

George Tutton was born in Stockport, Lancashire, on 11 May 1913, the son of a company director and his wife Eleanor Gertrude, née Bailey. He was educated at King William's School on the Isle of Man and at the University of Manchester, where he qualified with the MB in 1939. He did several resident s

Andrew Tallala, a neurosurgeon, was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 29 November 1924. His father, Hewage Benjamin Tallala, was an industrialist who married Lily Olga Fernando. There were two older brothers, both of whom served in the RAF in the second world war, the elder being killed flying a Ty

Bernard Williams was born on 20 April 1932 in Stockport, Cheshire, the son of Francis Bernard Williams, a shoe retailer, and Hope Johnson, the daughter of the sea captain and author Walter Rise Hawkins Johnson. He was educated at Stretford Grammar School and the University of Birmingham, where he qu

Alan Raynor Kirby was a neurosurgeon at the Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was born in Gosforth, Northumberland on 2 April 1924, the son of Alger Raynor Kirby, a manufacturer’s agent, and Phyllis Barbara Kirby née Hodgkin. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School,

Keith was born in Melbourne October 2, 1925 and died in Birmingham, Alabama on August 28, 2015. He was a man of enormous zest for life with a wide range of interests and friends that he maintained until the end which came rather suddenly when an infection supervened on top of a long battle with c

Alastair Robson - the pioneer neurosurgeon in Canberra - was born in Sydney in 1926 and went to Shore School in north Sydney where his father was Headmaster. He rowed in the Shore VIII, and after leaving school he coached the senior crew. It was at Shore that he met his future wife, Anne who became