Harold William Burge was born on 23 July 1909. He originally entered King's College, London, as an engineering student and shortly transferred to the faculty of medicine to graduate from King's College Hospital in 1933. After a few years in general practice he decided on a career in surgery and took

Gordon Ungley was born on 17 January 1906 in Harringay, North London, the son of Charles Ungley, an accountant and company secretary, and his wife, Grace Daisy Eleanor, née Goody. After a spell at a local school he went as a boarder to Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School in York and from there to me

'Tim' Merrington was an accomplished surgeon whose career was blighted but whose spirit was undimmed by multiple sclerosis. Within four years of becoming consultant surgeon to University College Hospital, an appointment for which his earlier achievements had long marked him out, he developed the fir

Born in Surrey, on 19 November 1908, the second son of Edmund Henderson Hunt, MCh, FRCS (Eng) and Laura Mary, daughter of Sir James Buckingham. His elder brother, John, was elected a Fellow of the College *ad eundem* for services as a co-opted Member of Council and to medicine. Educated at Charte

Arthur Jacob Helfet was born in Calvinia, Cape Province, on 19 February 1907, the eldest son of Leon Helfet, a farmer and businessman, and Sara (née Levin). His early education was at Calvinia High School and he proceeded to the University of Cape Town where he graduated BSc in 1929. His clinical st

Anthony Harold Charles was born on 14 May 1908, the second son of H.P. Charles. His early education was at Dulwich College after which he went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from 1927 to 1930. His sporting interests included rugby, cricket and boxing and he represented Cambridge Universit

Guy Blackburn was born on 20 November 1911 in Harrogate, the eldest son of Dr A E Blackburn, a general practitioner, who later moved to Beckenham, Kent. Guy was educated at Rugby (without great exposure to the game!), Clare College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Medical College. At Clare he took u

Jack Collis was a pioneering thoracic surgeon. He was born in Harborne, Birmingham, on 14 July 1911, the son of Walter Thomas Collis, an industrial chemist, and Dora Charton Reay. His choice of medicine was greatly influenced by his local GP and his two medical uncles, one of whom was a professor of