Lynne Wilford Baker was head of the department of surgery at the University of Natal Medical School, South Africa. He was born on 28 June 1928 in Potchefstroom, Transvaal, the first child of Lynne Wilford Borrius Baker, a bank clerk, and Fredericka Wilhelmina Baker née Tom, the daughter of a ‘landro

Michael Middleton was an Edinburgh Scot from a medical family who became a general and vascular surgeon in Birmingham, active in training and examining. His father, David Skene Middleton, had qualified in both medicine and dentistry in the 1920s but practiced initially as an anaesthetist. An enth

John Patrick Acton Weaver was a consultant urological surgeon at Dundee Royal Infirmary and a senior lecturer in surgery at the Universities of St Andrews and Dundee. He was born in Oxford, the son of John Reginald Homer Weaver, professor of history and president of Trinity College, and Stella Mary

Alexander Grant Macintyre was a family medicine specialist and general surgeon in Alliston, Ontario, Canada. He was born in Lucknow, Ontario, in 1930 and grew up on a farm. In 1948 he began studying medicine at the University of Toronto, but moved to England and Oxford University in 1951 on a schola

Barrington Sherwood Mather, known as 'Barrie', was a surgeon in Cairns and Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Birmingham on 15 February 1932, the eldest of three children of Cecil Aubrey Mather, a general practitioner, and Dorothy Collins Mather née Guest. His brother John also became a doctor and

Michael Hackett, or Mike, as he was always known, was born on 6 August 1931 in Morecambe, Lancashire. He was the son of Jack Hackett, editor of *The Morecombe Visitor* and the nephew of Desmond Hackett, the well-known *Daily Express* sports writer. He was educated at Preston Catholic College and pro