Kandiah Vythilingham was born in Ceylon on 7 November 1910 and qualified with the LMS of Ceylon in 1937. He joined the Department of Health Services in 1939 and was appointed an acting medical officer at the Victoria Memorial Eye Hospital, Colombo. Thenceforward he specialized in ophthalmology, hold

Oswald Gayer Morgan was born in Seaford, Sussex, on 5 July 1889, the eldest son of William Pringle Morgan and Ethel, née Eastwood. He was educated at Epsom College, Clare College, Cambridge, and Guy's Hospital Medical School, qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma in 1913. A year later he went to Fran

Samir Kumar Biswas was born in Khatura, a village in the Nadir district of West Bengal on 1 July 1929 and was educated at the St Xavier's College and the Medical College, Calcutta. He was always a meritorious student and graduated in 1954 and passed DOMS of Calcutta University in 1956. He then went

Bryan Paul Cooper was born in Leicester on 26 December 1931. His family emigrated to Australia four years later and settled in Croydon, New South Wales, where his father worked as a carpenter and joiner. Cooper was educated at the Christian Brothers, Lewisham, Sydney, from which he won an exhibition

Isidore Spiro served in two world wars. In the first world war he served as an ordinary infantryman in France. He was prevented from sitting the Final FRCS examination in 1939 because he had been called up, and when he eventually obtained leave from the British Expeditionary Force in order to sit he

Ogilvie Duthie, the eldest son of the director of education at Salford, was born on 19 September 1899, in Manchester. After education at Manchester Grammar School he enlisted in the Navy in 1916, at the age of 17, as a Sub-Lieutenant. Entering Manchester University after the war he qualified in 1921

William Stewart Duke-Elder was born on 22 April 1898 at Tealing, near Dundee, the son of a Scottish minister. Before proceeding to St Andrew's University as a foundation scholar in 1915 he had been a brilliant pupil at school and was invariably top of the class. He graduated MA in 1919 with first cl

Allen John Bridson Goldsmith was born on 27 November 1909, the son of an Edinburgh MD. He was educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and the Middlesex Hospital. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1931 and took the MB BS with distinction in medicine and pathology. He held posts at th

Tom Casey was born on 8 October 1929 in Limerick, the son of Michael Casey, a farmer. He was educated at University College, Dublin, and after specialising in ophthalmology became registrar first at the Westminster Hospital and later at Moorfields. He possessed a happy combination of inspiration, su

John Peregrine Francis Lloyd was born in Birmingham on 24 August 1907, the son of John Lloyd, managing director of Albright and Wilson, and Florence, née Armstrong. He was educated at West House School, Edgbaston, and Trent College, Derbyshire, before entering the University of Birmingham for medica

Born on 23 June 1901 in New Amsterdam, British Guiana, he was the son of William George Boase, MRCS, LRCP. He was educated at Mount St Mary's, a Jesuit college in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and St Thomas's Hospital, London, where he was influenced by the late Philip Mitchiner, then resident assistant

Roy Dalgleish was a consultant surgeon at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1929 and studied medicine at the University of Witswatersrand, qualifying MB BCh in 1952. After junior posts in Johannesburg, he went to the UK for further postgraduate studies a