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

Born at Oxford on 3 July 1877, he graduated from Lincoln College with first-class honours in physiology in 1898. He qualified in 1902 from Guy's Hospital, where he was senior science scholar, and held resident posts there and at the South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital, Plymouth. He took the Fello

Alwynne Rowlands was born in Launceston, Tasmania on 19 July 1905 and after attending the Launceston Church of England Grammer School he entered Melbourne University from which he graduated MB, BS in 1930. After resident posts at the Alfred Hospital he came to England where he was resident surgical

Eric Farquharson was born on 13 December 1905, the only son of William Anderson Farquharson, SSC, and Agnes Ness Cowie. A paternal great-grandfather, grandfather and two uncles were medically qualified. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and the University of Edinburgh. Postgraduate studies follow

James Hunter was born in Edinburgh on 20 April 1936, the son of James Hunter a golf greenkeeper. He attended the Portobello High School in Edinburgh and then St Margaret's Anfield School in Liverpool from 1949 to 1952. During the years 1956-57 he studied at the Liverpool Technical College and then w

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

Hughlings Jackson, a distant cousin of the great neurologist, was born on 3 October 1912, the youngest of the five children of William Herbert Jackson, a former master mariner who owned a stevedoring business in London and later worked for the Mission to Seamen. His mother was Beatrice née Walker. F

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

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

Laurence Ingle was born in Cambridge in 1892, the son of Arnold Clarkson Ingle, a general practitioner who was also physician to the Leys School. Laurence went to the Leys, and then to King's College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1909 as an Exhibitioner. He was devoted to music and to rowing, beco

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

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