Patrick Sames was a general surgeon in Bath with an interest in coloproctology. He was born on 17 January 1912 in Enfield, Middlesex, the only son of Christopher, a railway clerk, and Caroline née Radmore. He was a late entrant to medicine, leaving Harrow County School to become an apprentice in the

Arnold Gourevitch was a consultant surgeon in Birmingham. He was born in Paris on 24 February 1914, the son of Russian Jewish émigrés. At the outbreak of the first world war his parents fled to England, eventually settling in Birmingham. His father, Mendel, later qualified as a doctor and became a g

Lord Smith was one of our great presidents. Successive holders of that office have faced many and various challenges, but by any measure the confrontation between the Labour government and the BMA from 1974 to 1975 was a major crisis that threatened the future of consultant practice. Rodney Smith, a

Raeburn Rodd Talbot was a senior visiting surgeon at Greenlane Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. He gained his FRCS in 1939.

Gunewardene was born and educated in Ceylon. He did postgraduate studies in England during the 1930s, taking the Fellowship in 1939. He practised in Ceylon for about thirty years, and died there in his fifties.

Denis Astley Sanford was a senior general surgeon in Sunderland. He qualified MB BS in 1936 and, after a house physician post at University College Hospital, London, became a resident surgical officer at the Royal Infirmary, Sunderland. He served as a wing commander in the RAF and then, after the S

Paul Winchester Houghton was a general surgeon in Worcester, and served with distinction in the Second World War. He was born in west London into a naval family on 30 September 1911 and was educated at Whitgift School. Until his last days he could remember the hunger caused by rationing during the F

Edward George Tuckwell, the third of eight children and the eldest son of Edward Henry Tuckwell, a stockbroker, and of Annie Clarice (née Sansom), was born on May 12, 1910, at Godalming, Surrey. He was educated at Hillside School, Godalming; Charterhouse School, and Magdalen College, Oxford. He then

George Oliver Jelly was born on 26 April 1909 in Bury, Lancashire, the son of George Aubrey Jelly, an ophthalmologist, and Kathleen Mary Olive, the daughter of a papermaker. He was educated at Rugby, and read greats at Magdalen College, Oxford, but fell ill just before finals and took up medicine in

Roy Parkinson was born in 1911 and received his medical education at the London Hospital, whence he qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1932 and with the London MB BS the following year. After qualification he held posts as assistant orthopaedic surgeon at the East Ham Memorial Hospital and as su

John Coates was born in May 1911 and was educated at Keighley Grammar School and Leeds University. He had a distinguished academic career, graduating BSc with first-class honours in 1933 and qualifying three years later with honours. After various resident appointments at Leeds he became demonstr

John Alan East qualified in medicine in 1938 having trained at Guy's Hospital Medical School. He took the Conjoint Diploma in 1937 and the College Fellowship in 1939. He worked as consultant surgeon to the South East Metropolitan Hospitals Board in London. On moving to the USA he became surgeon to t