Maurice Ellis, the son of a motor engineer, who founded a milk business which later became Associated Dairies, was born on 16 September 1905 in Leeds and was educated at Rydal School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Leeds University School of Medicine. After qualifying in 1930 he was appointed to h

Major General Norman Rogers was the director of Army surgery, and during his career encouraged the training of Army surgeons and the study of military wounding at the research establishment at Porton Down. He was born on 14 October 1916 in Long Acre, central London, the only child of Charles William

Albert Patrick ('Paddy') Dignan was a former director of Army surgery. He was a remarkable character who was born into a modest family in Dublin. His father, Joseph, a tailor, was able to get all five of his sons through medical school. (Whether an ability to stitch can be inherited remains open to

Alan Jardine Watson was born on 2 December 1905. He received his medical education at the Middlesex Hospital and qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1927. He graduated MB BS two years later. He served in the RAMC from 1942 to 1946 in North Africa, Italy and Britain. After the second world war he

Iven Alastair Page was born at South Grafton, New South Wales, in 1914, being the third son of Sir Earle Page. He was educated at the Fort Street Boys' High School and the Sydney Church of England Grammar School, and then proceeded to the University of Sydney where he graduated in medicine in 1937.

Katharine Mary Burkill (Kit) was born in Cambridge on 25 October 1929, the daughter of John Charles Burkill, FRS, Professor of Pure Mathematics in the University of Liverpool and later Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Helen Margareta Braun-Pritchard. She was educated at the Perse School and Newn

Dick Aldridge was a surgeon in Wellington, New Zealand. He was born in Auckland on 18 June 1930. He was educated at Palmerston North Boys High School, where he was dux of the school. He attended Victoria University College and qualified from Otago Medical School in 1953. He was a house surgeon in We

James Dunbar Morgan was born in Liverpool in 1913 and educated at Liverpool College and at Sheffield University where he graduated in medicine in 1940. He later worked in the orthopaedic department of the Sheffield Royal Infirmary, then under the influence of Sir Frank Holdsworth. He was thus well g

Douglas William Cowley Gawne was born Minneapolis, USA, on 5 September 1906, of Manx parentage. He was educated at King William School, Isle of Man, and later went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and to St Bartholomew's Hospital. He qualified MB BCh in 1932. After several house appointm

William Gissane was born in Sydney on 26 April 1898 and educated at Ignatius College, where he captained the cricket and boxing and played rugby for the public schools of New South Wales. He served in the RAA during the first world war and returned to Australia to study medicine at the University of

Chandra Pal de Fonseka was an accident and emergency surgeon in Bristol. He was born in Panadura, Ceylon, on 22 December 1919 into a family with many medical connections. His grandfather and two uncles were medical practitioners. His father, Hector Clarence de Fonseka, was a landowner who managed hi

Major general Norman Kirby was a military surgeon and director of clinical services, accidents and emergencies, at Guy’s Hospital, London. *On wings of healing* (Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood & Sons) by Howard Cole is the definitive account of the airborne medical services from their beginnin