Lord Smith was one of our great presidents. Successive holders of that office have faced many and various challenges, but by any measure the confrontation between the Labour government and the BMA from 1974 to 1975 was a major crisis that threatened the future of consultant practice. Rodney Smith, a

Raeburn Rodd Talbot was a senior visiting surgeon at Greenlane Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. He gained his FRCS in 1939.

Arnold Gourevitch was a consultant surgeon in Birmingham. He was born in Paris on 24 February 1914, the son of Russian Jewish émigrés. At the outbreak of the first world war his parents fled to England, eventually settling in Birmingham. His father, Mendel, later qualified as a doctor and became a g

Patrick Sames was a general surgeon in Bath with an interest in coloproctology. He was born on 17 January 1912 in Enfield, Middlesex, the only son of Christopher, a railway clerk, and Caroline née Radmore. He was a late entrant to medicine, leaving Harrow County School to become an apprentice in the

Denis Astley Sanford was a senior general surgeon in Sunderland. He qualified MB BS in 1936 and, after a house physician post at University College Hospital, London, became a resident surgical officer at the Royal Infirmary, Sunderland. He served as a wing commander in the RAF and then, after the S

Mohamed Fatin was born on 3 September 1906. He gained his FRCS in 1939. His last known address was in Cairo, Egypt.

Robert Laird was surgeon-in-chief and professor of surgery at Toronto Western Hospital, Canada. He was born in Brockville, Ontario, on 5 October 1902, the second child and only son of Robert Laird, a clergyman, and Henrietta Laird née Odell. He was educated at North Toronto High School and Queen's U

Douglas William Guthrie was educated at Bayfield School and later at Auckland Grammar School. He graduated from Otago Medical School in 1935. After house surgeon years at Auckland Hospital he came to England and passed his Final Fellowship exams in 1939. He returned to Auckland Hospital where he

Brian Wilberforce Smith was born on 5 September 1910, went to Mill Hill School and then to Guy's Hospital where he qualified in 1933, proceeding to MB BS in 1935 and FRCS in 1939. His house appointments were at the Cancer Hospital in London and the Royal Infirmary Sheffield. Soon after the outbreak

George Oliver Jelly was born on 26 April 1909 in Bury, Lancashire, the son of George Aubrey Jelly, an ophthalmologist, and Kathleen Mary Olive, the daughter of a papermaker. He was educated at Rugby, and read greats at Magdalen College, Oxford, but fell ill just before finals and took up medicine in

Daniel Anthony Andersen was born in India in 1906 and educated in England. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma from University College Hospital in 1933, taking the MB BS later that year. In 1939 he took the FRCS and was appointed by the Salvation Army as chief medical officer to the Evangeline Bo

Cedric Longland was born at Bolobo in the Belgian Congo on 30 September 1914. His father, Frank Longland, was a civil engineer in East Africa and later Provincial Commissioner for Tanganyika Territory. Daisy Longland, Cedric's mother, was one of the earliest women to qualify in medicine at Edinburgh