Stanley Thomas McCollum was a former President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was born in Athboy, County Meath, on 3 May 1918, where his father, Thomas, was a farmer. His mother was Violet née Roe. From the National School, Athboy, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he won th

Kevin McNamara was born in Auckland on 14 January 1915. His mother died when he was 12, leaving seven children, of whom Kevin was the oldest. His father remarried and had a further nine children. He was educated at the Sacred Heart College, from which he went to Otago University, qualifying at the a

Thomas Miller (Tom) was born in Fielding, New Zealand, on 24 September 1917, the third son of Thomas Miller, a Presbyterian minister and Marion Meiklem née Strang, the daughter of a sea captain who became marine superintendent of the Union Castle Line. He was educated at the Otago Boys High School a

Ernest Wells Grahame came from South-West Scotland graduating in Glasgow in 1926. After a short spell in general practice, he decided to concentrate on surgery. He became surgeon and medical superintendent to Middlesborough General Hospital in 1947 where he worked for the rest of his career. The war

William Garden Hendry was a consultant surgeon at Highlands General Hospital and Wood Green and Southgate Hospital, London. He was born in Aberdeen on 30 September 1914, the son of two schoolteachers, and was brought up in a strict Presbyterian household. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School a

Austin Marsden was a consultant surgeon in Ormskirk and St Helens. He was born in St Helens, Lancashire, on Christmas Day 1919, the third son of George Marsden, a shoe merchant, and Agnes née Liptrot. He was educated at St Helens Catholic Grammar School, from which he went on to read medicine at Liv

Gerald Nevill was a consultant surgeon in Kenya. He was born on 22 December 1915 in Nurney, County Carlow, Ireland, the son of Alexander Colles Nevill, Archdeacon of the Church of Ireland, and Rosettah Fitzgerald, a teacher of modern languages and one of the first women to graduate from the Universi

Alan Sutherland had some remarkable experiences as a doctor at war. He was a prisoner of war for one day when, as a member of the 6th Field Ambulance, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, he was captured by German paratroops during the evacuation from Crete in 1941. They were killed so he escaped. L

Murray Greig was a former general surgeon at Waitako Hospital, in Hamilton, New Zealand. He was born on 23 April 1908 in Kirin, Manchuria, where his father, James Alexander Greig (FRCS Edinburgh) and mother, Ella Wallace, served with the Irish Presbyterian mission, establishing a hospital in Kirin b

Robert Ellis Gibbins was born in Birmingham on 29 July 1914, the son of David Gibbins, an engineer, and his wife Ethel Emilie, née Rohrbach. He was educated at a number of different schools and at Birmingham University Medical School, where he qualified MB ChB in 1938. After resident jobs at the Que

William Girdwood was born in Johannesburg on 25 May 1913, the son of William, a general practitioner and FRCS Edinburgh. Two uncles and his grandfather were all doctors, training in Edinburgh. After Grey High School, Port Elizabeth, William entered Witwatersrand University and won the South African

Ernest Thom McCartney was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, the son of Robert McCartney, a chemist, and his wife, Kathleen, née Thom. He was educated at Coleraine Institute and Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied medicine. He went on to training posts at Victoria Central Hospital, Wallasey,