George Gordon Bruce was born at Aberdeen on 25 August 1891. He was educated at Fordyce Academy and Aberdeen University and was awarded the Keith Gold Medal in surgery, graduating MB ChB Aberdeen in 1915. He then served as a Captain RAMC in France and the Dardanelles and was mentioned in dispatches i

Arthur de Sa, the fifth child of Lawrence and Clementine de Sa, was born in Bombay on 13 June, 1910. After education at Antonio da Silva High School, Bombay, he matriculated and secured an entrance scholarship to Elphinstone College, from whence he obtained a Junior Government Scholarship. After sec

Valentine Andrew James Swain was a paediatric surgeon in London's East End. He was born on 21 February 1910, a twin, in Ilford, Essex, into a family with a strong medical tradition. His father, James Steel Swain, and grandfather were both doctors. His mother was Mary Blanche née MacMunn. He went fro

Thomas Twistington Higgins was born on 19 November 1887 in Bolton, Lancashire, his father having been Vicar of Congleton. He went to school at Pocklington in East Yorkshire, and then on an entrance scholarship to Manchester University where he graduated MB, ChB in 1909 with distinctions in medicine,

Professor Jannie Louw was born on 26 May 1915 in Middleburg, South Africa, the son of a schoolmaster who later became a school inspector. He was educated at Rondebosch High School in Cape Town and the University of Cape Town Medical School, where he graduated in 1938 with distinction. After junior a

Harold Homewood Nixon (Nicky) was born in Newcastle on 27 February 1918, the son of Isaac Nixon, a chartered accountant. After early education at Fenham High School and the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for pre-clinical studies in 1935 and Durham

Denis Nash was a surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He was born on 10 February 1913 and educated at Dulwich College. He went on to study medicine at Bart's, where he won several scholarships and prizes, and qualified in 1935. After junior posts he became chief assistant in surgery at Bart

Peter Rickham was one of a small group of pioneering surgeons who helped to establish the specialty of paediatric surgery in the UK. He was born in Berlin on 21 June 1917, where his father, Otto Louis Reichenheim, was professor of physics at Berlin University. His mother was Susanne née Huldschinsky

Duncan Forrest was a distinguished member of that first generation of paediatric surgeons, most of whom trained at Great Ormond Street in the early years of the National Health Service, who pioneered specialist surgical units in children’s and in general hospitals across the country. Later in life h

Born at Auxey in Burgundy on 8 December 1871, the son of a landed proprietor and wine-grower, he was educated at a Jesuit school and at Dijon University. Transferring to Paris he discovered his taste for anatomy, was placed first in the examination for externes, served under Delbet 1894, under Rigal

Born on 25 June 1902, son of John Forrester Wood FRCS of Southport, he wished to make the army his career but the loss of sight in one eye at the age of 12 prevented this. Educated at Cheltenham College he was apprenticed at 16 to a firm of engineers, but owing to the world depression his father adv

George McFadden was born in Newtonstewart, County Tyrone, in 1892 and remained an Ulsterman all his life. The son of Jackson McFadden, a Presbyterian minister, and of May Loudon, he was the fourth son and the sixth child in a family of nine. His early upbringing was responsible for the integrity and