James Learmonth was born on 23 March 1895 at Gatehouse-of-Fleet, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, the elder son of William Learmonth and Kathleen Macosquin Craig. His father, a native of Edinburgh, was the headmaster of the parish school of Girthon, having previously spend many years in Orkney. Hi

Murray Falconer was born in New Zealand in 1910 and received his medical education at Otago University, Dunedin, from where he graduated MB BCh in 1934 and MCh in 1938. He obtained his FRCS in 1935, a year after he graduated. In 1937 he went to the United States as a Fellow in Surgery at the Mayo Cl

Adams McConnell was born in Belfast on 2 June 1884, and was educated at the Royal Academical Institution and Dublin University, where he graduated in medicine in 1909. He early showed his outstanding qualities by winning a gold medal at the BA examination in 1906, at the end of his pre-clinical stud

David Price was a consultant neurosurgeon at the General Infirmary at Leeds and also at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield. He was born on 9 April 1935 in Northampton, the younger son of Arthur Joseph Price, an education officer, and Ruby Kate Price (née Smart), a housewife. He attended Northampton Gr

Ascroft was born on 4 September 1906, the only son of James Arthur Ascroft of Bootle, Lancashire and Hannah Byers of Culton, Cumberland. He was educated at Worksop, the Middlesex Hospital, and the University of Strasbourg, qualifying in 1930; the next year he gained the gold medal at his Master of S

John Laidley Dowling worked as resident medical officer for the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, 1937-39. During the second world war he was with the RAMC and the AAMC and then became student supervisor to St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. He was a Gordon Craig Travelling Scholar 1945-47 and durin

Charles George Drake (Charlie), neurosurgeon, was born on 21 July 1920 in Windsor, Ontario. His father had died of Spanish influenza two months earlier. He was educated locally, but later moved to London, Ontario, receiving his medical education at the University of Western Ontario, from which he gr

Alan Sutcliffe Kerr was born in Liverpool on 31 May 1909 and educated at the Liverpool Institute for Boys and Liverpool University. He graduated MB ChB with first class honours in 1932. He chose a career in surgery and his interests were directed into the field of neurosurgery. Three years later

William Robert Henderson was born on 3 February 1904. He graduated in medicine at Edinburgh in 1926. In 1938 he was appointed first specialist neurosurgeon at Leeds but was only there for a year before he was selected as neurosurgeon-in-charge of the No 1 Army mobile neurosurgical unit based at Oxfo

Loyal Edward Davis was born on 17 January 1896 in Galesburg, Illinois, the son of Al Davis, a railroad engineer who had worked from the age of seven. It was assumed by all in that small community, except his father, that he would earn his living on the Burlington Railroad. Al, however, frequently ad

Born in Cleveland, Ohio on 8 April 1869, the youngest of the nine children of Henry Kirke Cushing (1827-1910), MD, LLD, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Western Reserve Medical School, and Betsey Wilkinson, his wife. His grandfather and great-grandfather had both been members of the medica

Born on 10 April 1886, son of Arthur John Jefferson MD of Rochdale, who was trained at St Thomas's and became honorary medical officer to Rochdale Infirmary, he received a classical education at Manchester Grammar School, as did his younger brother J C Jefferson FRCS (1888-1954). Proceeding to Manch