Raymond Alexander King was born on 5 January 1918 and his early education was in China where his father and grandfather were medical missionaries. He entered the London Hospital Medical College for clinical studies and qualified in 1939. Within a few months he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and

Puspanathan Sadasivan Vaithilingam was born in Durban, on 19 September 1927, the eldest son in a family of eight brothers and one sister. His father, Sadasivan Vaithilingam, was a successful farmer, and his mother was Pappathee, née Reddy. After schooling at Sastri College he emigrated to Scotland i

Anthony Partridge was born on 8 February 1920, in London, the son of Walter Partridge, a dental surgeon, and Evelyn Edgar. After education at Framlingham College, Suffolk, he entered Charing Cross Hospital where he qualified and held appointments as house surgeon in general surgery, and as house sur

Arthur Beresford Beresford-Jones was born on 8 April, the son of the Rector of Winalton, Co Durham. He was educated at St Paul's Choir School, London, and at the University of Durham College of Medicine, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He graduated MB BS in 1906 and was house surgeon to Rutherford Morison. He

Ibrahim El Moghraby was educated at Gordon's Memorial College in Khartoum and the Kitchener School of Medicine, where he graduated with distinction in 1935 after winning prizes in both medicine and surgery. He subsequently joined the Sudan medical service and after appointments at Khartoum Civil

John Nicholas Rimmer was born in Widnes, Lancashire, on 26 July 1924. His father was John Rimmer, a farmer, and his mother was Florence Woods. His father-in-law, Harold Frederick Leese, LDSRCS, was a dental surgeon in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, for forty years. John Rimmer attended Wade Deacon Scho

Ian Harris was surgeon to the government of Brunei. He was born in Adelaide in 1920. His father had emigrated from Scotland, and Ian himself felt profoundly Scottish. He interrupted his medical studies to join the Royal Navy during the second world war. In the North Sea and later in the Mediterranea

Robert Bewick was born in Glasgow on 19 July 1907, the second son of James Dicker Bewick, a business executive and Elizabeth Jane Sloan, daughter of an Exciseman. He was educated at Alexandra Parade School 1912-18, Whitehall Secondary School 1918-24 and Glasgow University Medical School where he won

Drogo Austin was born in Colombo, Ceylon on 17 October 1910, the son of Lester Austin, a banker in the National Bank of India who claimed descent from the Commissar General of the British Army which had captured Ceylon from the Dutch. His mother was Ethel Elfreda, née Nicolle. He was educated at Roy

Frederick Herman Aitken Walker, the only child of Frederick, a cotton manufacturer, and of Edith Walker, was born on 1 July 1900 at Clayton Le Moors, Lancashire. He was educated at Calday Grange School, West Kirby, Cheshire, and, after one year as a medical student at Liverpool University he moved t

Son of a pastoralist, Donald Wallace Fleming ("Don" or sometimes "Walt" to his friends) was born in Carnarvon 2 January 1917. He attended the local primary School in Carnarvon then Guildford Grammar School in Perth, completing his schooling in 1934. In those days, to do medicine it was necessary

George Patrikios was chief of surgery at Sebokeng Hospital, Gauteng, South Africa. He was born on 13 February 1937 in Salisbury, Rhodesia, the third child and second son of Greek parents – Nestor Theodore Patrikios, a tobacco grader, and Eudokia Patrikios née Tselentis. He was educated at the David