Walter Gordon was a thoracic surgeon. He was born on 11 January 1916 in Modderfontein, South Africa, the third child and second son of Herman Gordon, a confectionery manufacturer and businessman, and Anna née Rabinowitz , a housewife. He was educated at King Edward VII School, Johannesburg, and then

Roger Abbey Smith was a consultant surgeon at Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry. He was born in Birkenhead. At the age of 11 he was deeply affected by the early death of his mother from psittacosis pneumonia caught from the family parrot, despite being attended by Henry Cohen, arguably the most celebrate

Norman Stanwell Hooton was a consultant thoracic surgeon in the south east Thames region. He was born in Warwick on 8 November 1921, the only child of Leonard Stanwell Hooton, a land commissioner, and Marion Shaw Brown née Sanderson. He was educated at Oundle School and then went on to Sidney Sussex

Hyder Ismail Sheikh was born on 5 April 1931 at Shahada, Maharashtra, India and educated at the University of Bombay, where he graduated in 1956 with first-class honours in medicine and surgery. After holding house appointments at the Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy Hospital, Bombay, he came to England and was

Noel Adeney, known as 'Jeff', was born in Cairo on 26 November 1897. His father, Frederick Field Adeney, was a priest, his mother was Rosalie, neé Savage. He was educated at Monkton Combe School and then St John's College, Cambridge, on an open classical scholarship. He served in the first world war

Hugoe Matthews was an eminent thoracic surgeon who was an expert on the diseases of the oesophagus; he was also an authority on the Victorian nature writer and mystic Richard Jefferies. He was educated at Sutton County Grammar School where, even as a teenager, he knew he wanted to be a surgeon. He q

Adam Golebiowski was born in March 1914 to a Polish family which had been associated with the struggle for independence since Napoleonic times. He studied medicine at Lwow in the 1930s. He was mobilised at the outbreak of the second world war and taken prisoner by the Russians, undergoing very harsh

Born in 1929, Hakim Abdel Malak Samaan studied medicine in London, qualifying MB, BS from Guy's Hospital in 1958. He became surgical registrar in the thoracic unit of the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh and passed the FRCS Ed in 1962. Moving to London he held appointments at the Prince of Wales' Hospit

Arthur Terence Sahanandan ('A T S') Paul was a pioneering cardiothoracic surgeon in Sri Lanka. He was born on 5 September 1915 in Colombo, in what was then Ceylon, into a distinguished Tamil family. His father, Samuel Chelliah Paul, was a senior surgeon at the General Hospital, Colombo, and the firs

Clayton Lindsay Nelson Robinson, known as 'Robbie', was a thoracic surgeon in Vancouver, Canada. He was born in Chapeau, Quebec, the son of Joseph Edward Robinson, a rancher, and Ada Elizabeth Robinson née Armstrong. He was raised on a farm in Meath, Ontario, the youngest of three sons who were all

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 in South Africa on 1 August 1918, youngest son of Hyman Brunow, merchant, and his wife, née Maister, he was educated at South African College School, Cape, and the University of Cape Town. After serving as house surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital, he went on active service with the South African