Born at Caerphilly on December 6th, 1821, the son of a medical man who had an extensive country practice, which he conducted on horseback; he was proud of his stable, and his son had the advantage of an active outdoor life in his boyhood and after his apprenticeship to his father. William Edwards (1

Dennis Walder, professor of surgical science at the University of Newcastle, was a leading researcher in the field of decompression sickness ('the bends') and hyperbaric medicine. Surgery as a specialty has always been encompassed by wide boundaries, but Dennis' research must surely rank as a topic

Born at Blackheath on 22 April 1874, the eldest child and only son of Captain William Maxwell, merchant navy, and his wife, *née* Dobell. He was educated at Weymouth College and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he was sizar and exhibitioner. He took first-class honours in part 1, 1896, of the Na

Born in Liverpool on 13 October 1899 the only child of Ralph Edward Dodds and his wife Jane Pack, Charles Dodds was educated at Harrow County School and the Middlesex Hospital, where he won prizes in chemistry, pharmacology and physiology. He qualified in 1921 at the University of London, and procee

Dame Cicely Saunders established St Christopher's Hospice in London, which became the model for hundreds of other hospices. She was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on 22 June 1918, the daughter of Gordon Saunders, a domineering estate agent, and Mary Christian Wright. She was educated at Roedean and

Francis John Ensell was born on 27 May 1926 and graduated in medicine at Birmingham in 1949. He held house appointments at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the General Hospital, Birmingham, and took the FRCS in 1960. He had served in the Royal Air Force and was awarded the George Medal for bravery while

Born in London, 29 July 1864, the third son of Hugh Smith of Darvel, Ayrshire, and younger brother of Sir George Smith, KCMG, Governor of Nyasaland, 1913-23. Hugh Smith was educated at the City of London School and at University College, London. He entered the London Hospital after gaining the entra

Hugh Baron was a consultant physician-gastroenterologist at St Mary's and Hammersmith hospitals, London. Of all his qualities, the foremost was his love of scholarship. He hungered for knowledge in all his many areas of interest, and from his research and ideas he added to most of them. He described

Francis Avery Jones was a distinguished consultant physician and gastroenterologist at Central Middlesex and St Mark's Hospitals. He was born in Beccles, Suffolk, on 31 May 1910, the son of Francis Samuel and Marion Rosa. He was educated locally at the St John Leman School, before proceeding to St B

Born at Beulah, Breconshire, 2 January 1877, the seventh child and only son of Moses Williams, and his wife Ann Jones. He was educated at Christ College, Brecon, and the London Hospital. He won an entrance science scholarship to the Hospital's Medical College in 1897, and a scholarship in anatomy an

Charles Ernest Lakin was born in 1878, the son of a general practitioner who became the Mayor of Leicester. He was educated at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School where he was a First Entrance Scholar, and won Broderip and Freeman Scholarships, and qualified in 1901 with the Conjoint Diploma, and

Reginald Theobald Payne was born at Northampton on 15 March 1896. When he was aged 65 he published a remarkable book *The watershed* in which he gave a vivid picture of his childhood and schooldays. He was the eldest of four brothers, and as his father, who had a furniture business in the town, brou