Samuel Ernest Birdsall was born on 14 February 1908 in Skipton, Yorkshire, the only son of James Ernest, an optician, and his wife, Eva. He attended Skipton Grammar School winning an open exhibition to Christ's College, Cambridge. His clinical studies were carried out at St Bartholomew's Hospital, L

Philip Ghey was born of a Quaker background in Plymouth in 1909, and was educated at Kelly College in Tavistock, Devon, and St John's College, Cambridge. He completed his medical education at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he qualified in 1933, but he had already passed his Primary FRCS as a third

Thomas Stewart Heslop was born in South Shields, the son of a schoolmaster, on 18 March 1907. He was educated at Blackburn Grammar School and Manchester University, where he graduated with first class honours in 1931, gaining the medal in medicine. After two years in the anatomy department under Pro

Desmond Kyran Mulvany was born in Portsmouth on 8 July 1907, the son of Dr John Mulvany, a general practitioner and an alderman of the City of Portsmouth, and his wife Eileen. His early education was at St John's College, Southsea, and St George's College, Weybridge, before entering King's College H

Philip Baron was born in Bulawayo on 30 June 1907, and received his early education at Milton School, where he excelled both academically and on the field of sport. He then proceeded to the University of Cape Town, where he graduated MB ChB in 1930. He was appointed to the Woodstock Hospital as hous

Bob Wolfe was born in London on 10 October 1907. He came from Eastbourne College to St Thomas's where he qualified in 1932 and where, inspired by his teachers Cyril Nitch and Phillip Mitchiner, he decided on a career of surgery, rather against his father's hopes that they would join in general pract

S H Wass, the only child of Isaac Wass of Nottingham, was born on the 5 December 1907. He was educated at University College Nottingham, and came to Guy's Hospital as a preclinical student in 1928. He qualified in 1934, became FRCS in 1935 and MS of London University in 1936. Because of the second w

William Robert Soutter Hutchinson, the son of a general practitioner, was born at Cannock in Staffordshire and educated at Sedbergh, where he developed his love of the country and the walking and fishing he enjoyed all his life. He then proceeded to Cambridge and completed his medical studies at St

Eric John Smith was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born on 31 March 1910 in Norwood, Surrey, the second son of Robert Percy and Edith Smith. His early life was overshadowed by the death from Hodgkin’s disease of his elder brother who had been a child prodigy, and Eri

Kenneth Gilchrist was Fiji's first surgeon specialist and principal of the Fiji School of Medicine from 1964 to 1970. He was born in London on 8 March 1910, the second son of James Gilchrist, a doctor and a graduate of Aberdeen University, and Constance Lilian Gilchrist née Osmond. He was educated a

Henry Shucksmith was the third child of Thomas Warth Shucksmith, a farmer of Alvington, Lincolnshire, and his wife Fanny White, whose father was a blacksmith. He was educated at the Alvington and North Coederington Church of England Elementary School followed by the King Edward VI Grammar School, Lo

Born on 20 July 1907, William Henry Graham Jessop was educated at Almondsbury Grammar School, Huddersfield, and King's College, Cambridge, where he gained his BA in Natural Sciences in 1928. He did his clinical studies at University College Hospital, graduating MRCS LRCP in 1931, and later the Cambr