Somasunderam Pothalingam was a surgeon at the Children's Hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and at Wanstead Hospital, London, and an honorary assistant in surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London. He qualified MB BS in 1951 from the University of Colombo, in what was then Ceylon. He w

David Thomas was a consultant surgeon at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and Derbyshire Children's Hospital. He was descended from four generations of Welsh coalminers. His father, Richard, had left Wales in the 1920s, looking for work, and ended up in Watford, where he met and subsequently married the w

Prabhakar Shankar Phatak, known as 'Prabhu', was a consultant general surgeon at the Whittington Hospital. He was born in Pusad, Maharashtra, India, on 20 March 1936, the son of Shankar Ganesh Phatak, a lawyer, and Uma Phatak née Kelkar, a housewife. His mother's father was a doctor. He attended the

Purnendu Kumar Chattopadhyaya was a surgeon in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. He gained his FRCS in 1967. He died on 11 December 2014.

Keith Okey was a general surgeon in Sydney, New South Wales. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk

Noel Desmond Sherson was a general surgeon in Melbourne, Australia. He was born on 26 February 1936 in Geelong, Victoria, the only child of Charles Stanley Sherson, a coach builder, and Ella Myrtle Sherson née Wilson. He attended Geelong College, where he was *dux* of the school in 1954. He went on

David Cairns was a consultant general surgeon in the High Wycombe Health District. He studied medicine at Cambridge University and graduated in 1962. After house jobs in vascular surgery and urology in London at the Middlesex Hospital and St Mark’s, he passed the fellowship of the college in 1967. H

Markandu Thambirajah was a surgeon in Hudson, New York. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk

Prasert Sukhum was a surgeon in Bangkok, Thailand. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, qualified MB BS in 1959 and then specialised in surgery. He worked at various hospitals in the UK and gained his FRCS in 1967. He returned to Thailand, where he was a lecturer and assistant prof

Anthony Higham was a surgeon from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire. He studied medicine at Manchester University graduating MB ChB in 1962. Five years later, in 1967, he passed the fellowship of the college and of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He died in 2013.

John Beaugié was a consultant general surgeon at North Middlesex Hospital, London. He was born on 26 September 1939 in Folkestone, Kent, the eldest of five children. His father, Donald McNicoll Beaugié, had been a missionary doctor in Nigeria before succumbing to ill health and returning to the UK t

Peter Catts was a general surgeon in New South Wales, Australia. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales on 12 April 1940, the son of Stanley Victor Catts and Vera Jean Catts née Reynolds. He went to the UK for surgical training and gained his FRCS in 1967. He then returned to Australia, where h