Ralph Ger was a clinical anatomist and innovative surgeon, who spent most of his working life in New York at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He emigrated from South Africa during the period of apartheid, and obtained much of his surgical training in the United Kingdom after war service in t

Born 25 November 1851 the second of the ten children of Robert Ward Shepherd, general manager of the Ottawa River Navigation Co, and his wife, * née* Delesderniers, who was of Swiss origin. He was born at Port Cavignal, afterwards named Como, a village about 38 miles from Montreal on the southern si

Of those serving the needs of Malta and its population after the Second World War, the name of Victor Griffiths stands out as a most remarkable man. A gifted general surgeon, he had a very wide repertoire, including thoracic surgery. He served Malta as professor of surgery and of anatomy over many y

Vrasapillai Gabriel was born on 18 December 1885 in the town of Mannar in Northern Ceylon. He came from a well known Northern family who were the hereditary administrators in the day of the British Raj. His father was Mudaliyar V Varsapillai JP, UPM, Adigar of Musale. He was born into a family of tw

Albert Ernest Coates was born on 28 January 1895 at Ballarat, Victoria. His father was a minor postal official and his grandparents had emigrated from Suffolk and Cornwall, attracted by the news of the gold discovery. Leaving school at the age of eleven he decided early to become a doctor and he

Jack Heselson was born on 4 January 1910 in Cape Town, and after his schooling at Wynberg Boys' High School attended the Univesity of Cape Town, where he graduated BA in 1929 and MB ChB in 1933, obtaining distinctions in the final examination and the degree with honours. After his internship at Some

Edward Francis Shanahan studied medicine at the National University of Ireland where he qualified MB BCh BAO in 1944 with first place and first class honours and won the McArdle Medal. He was an associate member of the International Society of Surgeons. He became lecturer in anatomy at University Co

Charles Workman Maclay was born in Glasgow on 4 November 1913 and educated at Glasgow Academy and at Strathallan where he won a gold medal and was dux of the school. As a student at Glasgow University he won the Lorimer Bursary in anatomy and physiology, the Macleod Gold Medal in surgery, and the As

John Pegington was born at Pontypool, Gwent, on 10 September 1934, the only child of Arthur John Pegington, a building contractor, and Edith May, née Pearce, the daughter of a cobbler. He recalled growing up surrounded by coal mining and music and, after education at Pentnewynydd Primary School and

Douglas Harold Barnbrook, known as 'Barney', was a consultant general surgeon and professor of anatomy at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He studied medicine at Birmingham University, gaining his MRCS LRCP in 1946. He passed his FRCS in 1951 and in the same year emigrated to H

A consultant surgeon in south Teesside, 'Sam' Mottershead was a colourful, amusing and forthright person who contributed much to surgery and was a great exponent of clinical anatomy. He was born in Stockport on 5 December 1914, and received his medical education in Manchester, gaining the Tom Jones

Jacques ('Jack') Loeb was chief of surgery at the Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and also an author and anatomist. He was born in Berlin on 31 August 1925, the son of Joseph Loeb, founder of Loeb and Sutheim, one of the most prominent furriers in Europe, and Else