Born in Sydney in 1913 of Latvian descent, he distinguished himself as an athlete, playing Rugby football for Australia and swimming in the Sydney Life-savers Club. Qualifying in 1940 he served for five years in the Royal Australian Naval Medical Service, working for a time in the North Sea convoys

Born at Sunderland, Co Durham on 24 December 1900, the son of Laurence O'Shaughnessy, inspector of customs and excise, and Mary Westgate, his wife, who died on 21 March 1941. He was educated at South Shields High School for Boys and left at the age of sixteen to go to Durham College of Medicine, his

Bryan Moore studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, where he became casualty surgical officer and house surgeon. He was a surgical specialist in the RAMC from 1944 to 1947, then a surgical registrar at UCH. He was subsequently appointed a consultant thoracic surgeon to the South East Metropolitan

Kenneth Mullard was born on 27 December 1912 in Enfield, Middlesex, where his father Stanley R Mullard MBE was founder and chairman of the Mullard Radio Valve Company. His mother was Emmie née Hole. He was educated at Lancing and Clare College, Cambridge, and went on to St Thomas's to do his clinica

Peter Henry Jones was born in Monmouth on 1 March 1917 and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's West Monmouth School in Pontypool. He studied medicine at the Westminster Hospital and qualified in 1939. After house appointments at the Westminster Hospital he served in the RAMC from 1942 to 1946 as Reg

Norman Barrett was born in Adelaide, Australia, on 16 May 1903. He was one of the great pioneers of thoracic surgery. After spending his early years in Australia he came to England and was educated at Eton where he was distinguished in both academic and athletic fields. He proceeded to Trinity Colle

Born in 1919, Ivan Barnat studied medicine at Witwatersrand University and qualified MB ChB in 1942. After serving in the South African Medical Corps during the second world war, he came to Britain and became FRCS in 1947. Following his return to South Africa he practised in Durban, specialising in

Wilfred Grundhill was born on 2 March 1920 in Brakpan, where he matriculated at the local high school in 1938. His father had emigrated from England and was employed in the gold mining industry; he developed a lung problem and his son's interest in thoracic surgery was nurtured by this misfortune. H

Dame Joyce Daws was a consultant thoracic surgeon in Melbourne.

Born on 1 February 1911, in Belfast, the son of John Alexander Bingham, pharmaceutical chemist, and Essie Jane (née Carlson), John was educated at the Methodist College and Queen's University, Belfast. He won the Musgrave Prize in pathology and the Coulter and McWhitty Prizes. After graduating MB, B

Andrew Jowett was born in Sunderland in 1933, where his father, Ronald, an honorary FRCS, was an ENT surgeon and a member of the Newcastle Regional Hospital Board. Andrew was educated at Sedbergh School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he gained his BA in 1954. He subsequently went on to the

Vernon Thompson ('VCT') was born at Tutshill, Tidenham, Gloucestershire on 17 September 1905, his father, Cecil Charles Brandon Thompson, being a general practitioner and his mother, Dorothy Christian, née Ford, the daughter of a solicitor. He went to Seafield School, Bexhill-on-Sea, and then on to