Michael Wilkinson was the eldest of six sons of Charles Robert Wilkinson and was born in Thetymu, Burma, on 1 May 1899. His father, a civil servant, grandfather and great grandfather were missionaries, and all served in India. His mother was Elizabeth Florence Sinclair and her father was a merchant.

Lewis Herbert Savin was born in London on 26 March 1901. His parents were missionaries who had fled from China at the time of the Boxer rebellion a few months before his birth. Shortly after, his father and mother returned to the hospital that his father had founded at Chao Tung in Yunnan. He used t

Victor Wilkinson Dix was born in Dorset on 24 May 1899 and educated privately. He served in the Royal Flying Corps from 1917 to 1919, then went up to Cambridge to study medicine there and at the London Hospital. He was appointed assistant surgeon to the London in 1930 and eventually became Professor

Christie was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, on 13 July 1894, the eldest son of Andrew Christie, who farmed in Southland, New Zealand, and Lillian Laura, née Kenrick, daughter of Harry Kenrick, Stipendiary Magistrate. His primary education was at Kaikorai School, Dunedin, then in 1908 at Otago

Born on 8 February 1891 in the Military Cantonments at Bangalore, Dick Rishworth was the son of an officer in the British Army in India: his mother was the daughter of a major in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps and his great grandfather was an Assistant Surgeon of the East India Company. After educat

Bryan Hartop Burns was born on 14 December 1896, at Higham Park, Rushden, Northants. He was the elder of the two sons of Hartop Burns, farmer, and Florence Ann, née Fuller. Both parents came from farming and landowning families in Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire. He was educated first at Kimbolt

Born on 18 August 1902, the son of F M H Eckhoff, a Norwegian architect, he was educated in South Africa at Durban High School, Natal University and the University of Cape Town, and at Guy's Hospital, where he arrived in 1920 with a senior science scholarship. At Guy's he qualified with the Conjoint

George Frederick Gibberd was born on 18 April 1902 and grew up in Dulwich. He was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School and Guy's Hospital and qualified in 1923. He became MS (London) in 1926 and FRCS in 1927 and a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1933. He was ele

Harold Clifford Edwards was born in Newport, Monmouthshire on 15 August 1899, the second son of William Evans Edwards, Professor of Music, and Mary Selina (née Jones). He was educated at St Woollos School and Newport Intermediate School before joining the Royal Engineers in 1917 as a skilled sapper.

William Harold Alfred Dodd, the eldest of three sons and second of five children of Alfred Leward Dodd and Annie Elizabeth (née Marshall), was born at Crewe, Cheshire, on 13 March 1899. He was educated at St Michael's Church School, Coppenhall, Crewe, and at Crewe Grammar School. From September 1917

John Creyghton Ainsworth-Davis was born on 23 April 1895 at Aberystwyth. His father was Professor of Biology in the University of Wales and later Principal of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He was educated at Westminster School and from there went up to Christ's College, Cambridge, wit

George Caiger was born on 26 April 1896, at Jacobstal, Orange Free State. His father, Herbert Caiger, FRCS, had been an ophthalmic surgeon in the UK and was practising in Burghersdorp. George was the eldest child of Herbert and his wife Mary Jane, nee Heritage. He grew up in Burghersdorp, and went t