Donald Griffiths was a consultant general surgeon in Aberystwyth. He was born in Colwyn Bay on 12 March 1921, the son of Thomas Owen Griffiths, a science master, and Alice Adelaide, the daughter of a tailor. He was educated at Penmaenrhoe Council School and Colwyn Bay County School, and was Denbighs

Born on 14 August 1921 at Northampton; his father was a leather factor, but his great-uncle Henry Briggs FRCS, was the first Professor of Midwifery in the University of Liverpool, and his mother's brother Hugh Reid FRCS, was surgeon to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. James's younger brother Donald Kn