Sir Geoffrey Slaney was Barling professor of surgery and head of department at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham University, and a former president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was born in West Hallam, Derbyshire, on 19 September 1922, the elder son of Richard and Lois Slaney.

Derek Wardle was a general surgeon and general practitioner in New South Wales, Australia. He was born in Herefordshire to Harold Wardle and Elsie Wardle née Clarkeson. As a boy, he loved working on local farms, developing a love of agricultural work that played out later in his life in Australia, w

Martin Cooper was medical director of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, and a consultant general surgeon. He was born in 1947. At 14, having had his appendix removed, he decided he wanted to become a surgeon. Three years later, at Forest Grammar School in Winnersh, Berkshire, his biology teacher

Brigadier Graham Stock was an adviser in orthopaedic surgery to the director general of Army Medical Services and a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, Woolwich. He was born on 21 February 1937 in Chesterfield, the son of Charles Edward Stock, a foreman at Cheste

Lieutenant General Malik Shaukat Hasan was director of surgery in the Pakistan Army and a pioneer of cardiothoracic surgery in his country. He was born on 12 May 1919 in Amritsar, India, the third son of a middle class Muslim cloth merchant; his paternal grandfather was from Kashmir and his maternal

Leslie H Blumgart (‘Les’) was one of the world leaders in hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgery. Known affectionately as ‘the professor’ by his many trainees, he was a dominant figure in the evolution of HPB surgery around the world for almost 50 years and built one of the great HPB clinical and ac

The only child of Andrew Cheyne of Ollaberry, Shetland and Eliza Watson, his wife (d. 1856), was born off Hobart's Town, Tasmania, on 14 December 1852. His father (d. 1867) was the owner of ships trading in the South Sea islands. His parents dying young, Cheyne was brought up by his uncle, who was t

Born on July 16th, 1783, at Cirencester, where his father, William Lawrence (1753-1837), was the chief surgeon of the town. His mother was Judith, second daughter of William Wood, of Tetbury, Gloucestershire. The younger son, Charles Lawrence (1794-1881), was a scientific agriculturist who took a le

Born at East Hoathly, Sussex on 18 September 1884, where his father and grandfather had practised, he was educated at Eastbourne College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. There he took second class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos part I in 1905, and following the family tradition did

Joshua Samuel Horn was born in London of Jewish parents on 14 July 1914. He won a scholarship to University College Hospital, where he had a brilliant career and collected various undergraduate medals and prizes. 'Josh', as he was known, had charm, dedication, and courage. During the hungry 'thirtie

John Prince Hopewell, a consultant urological surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London, was a pioneer in the introduction of dialysis into the UK and the development of kidney transplantation. He was born on 1 December 1920, the fourth child and only son of Samuel Hopewell and Wilhelmina ('Daisy')

Born at Leeds on June 28th, 1831, the eldest son of Thomas Pridgin Teale, senr (qv), and succeeded his father both officially and in practice. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School, entered Winchester College in 1844, and matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on February 2nd, 1849. He gradu