Charles Raymond Helsby was born on 13 February 1921 in St Helens, Lancs, the son of a local businessman, Frederick Johnson Helsby and his wife Emily, née Cawley. Following the local infant school he attended Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and went on to the Liverpool Medical School. He qualified

Thomas Michael Hennebry was born in Tramore, County Waterford, Ireland in 1913, the son of Michael Hennebry, a wine importer. He was educated at Castleknock College, Dublin, and University College, Dublin. He qualified with honours in 1937, taking the McCardle prize in surgery and the O'Farrell gold

Munro Walker-Brash was a consultant general surgeon at Orpington and Sevenoaks hospitals. He was born in London on 15 November 1920, the second son of John Walker-Brash, a general practitioner, and his wife Gloria Lilian née Parker. He was educated privately at Colet Court in Hammersmith and Clivede

Ian McGregor was Director of the West of Scotland Plastic Surgery Unit at Cannisburn Hospital and a former President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He was born on 6 June 1921 in Glasgow, the son of a monumental mason and a seamstress, and was educated at North Kelvinside

Trevor Dinning, known since childhood as ‘Jim’, was the architect of neurosurgical services in South Australia and the creator of a very successful research foundation. He was born in Dulwich, Adelaide, on 16 February 1919, the second child of Alfred Ernest Dinning, a school inspector and later head