Born in Bromley, Kent on 12 May 1905, Gaffer, as he was always known, was educated at Brighton College and St Thomas's Hospital where he was to spend most of his professional life. The second son of a solicitor, perhaps the immense attention to detail which characterised his work was due to his earl

'Roley' Lee was born in 1906 to a Lincolnshire family, the youngest of ten children. He went to Brigg Grammar School where he was an outstanding athlete, excelling as much in swimming and tennis as he did in football. He won a scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and then went on to do his cl

Charles Vartan was born on 11 November 1907 at Sandiacre, Nottinghamshire, where his father, Charles Samuel Vartan, was a general practitioner and his mother was Florence Ethel, née Hepworth. His grandfather was Dr P K Vartan who in 1861 had founded the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society's Hospita

Alphonsus d'Abreu, 'Pon' to his many friends, was the younger son of a Birmingham general practitioner and was born on 5 April 1906. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and at Birmingham University. Following graduation in 1930 and resident and registrar appointments in Birmingham he became a lect

James Reid was born in Bournemouth on 24 October 1906, the son of George Alexander Reid, a general practitioner, and his wife Muriel, née Hopwood. He was educated at Hailey Preparatory School in Bournemouth, and Marlborough College, Wiltshire. He then went to Oxford University and on to St George's