Eric Travers was a consultant surgeon to Sedgefield and Stockton and Thornaby hospitals. He was born on 7 June 1910 in Brantingham, Yorkshire, where his father John (‘Jack’) Francis Travers was a solicitor. His mother was Beatrice Mary Horsley. The eldest of three, he and his two younger sisters (Ma

Hanns-Martin Goldberg was a consultant surgeon in Manchester. He was born in Sohrau, Germany, on 14 June 1913, and educated in Berlin and Heidelberg, where he received the early part of his medical training. With the coming of Hitler, he went to London where, thanks to University College, he was abl

Kenneth Edgar Bond spent much of his career as a surgeon working in India. The son of Edward Vines Bond, the rector of Beddington, and Rose Edith née Bridges, the daughter of a landowner, he was born on 24 October 1908 and was educated at Mowden School, Brighton, and Haileybury College, before going

Alfred John Drew, known as ‘Jack’, was a former consultant general surgeon in Walsall. He was born in Ceylon on 17 February 1916, the son of the chief pilot for the harbour at Colombo. He was educated at Nuwara Eliya, and was then sent to Ipswich School at the age of 11. He became head boy and rugby

John Swift Joly was a consultant surgeon at Goondiwindi Hospital, Queensland, Australia. He was born in London on 21 March 1912, the only child of John Swift Joly, an eminent urologist and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Mary Tottenham Fitzpatrick, the daughter of a Dublin bank manage

Louis Arnold Ives was a consultant general surgeon at St Charles Hospital, London. He trained at London University and St Bartholomew's Hospital graduating MB, BS in 1938. At the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London he became honorary lecturer in surgery. While working in London he lived in H

Tom O'Neill was a general surgeon at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. He was born on 22 May 1912 near Newmarket, County Cork, and attended Presentation College, Cork, and then University College, Cork, where he studied medicine. He qualified in 1935. After house posts, he went to Engl

Murphy was educated at University College London, graduating in science and proceeding to the Master of Science degree in 1934, before qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma in 1935 and taking the London medical and surgical degrees in 1936. During the second world war he served as medical officer in

Charles John Gordon was born on 24 June 1910, in Angmering, Sussex. He came of a long line of clerical forbears, several of whom were bishops in Lincoln. His father was the Reverend George Gordon, who was Vicar of Angmering. His mother, Eileen Hutton, came of an army family. He was the only son and

Edward Ernest Thurlow Taylor was born in Bolton, Lancashire on 3 February, 1910. He was the younger son of Herbert Taylor, a cotton manufacturer, and of Edith Taylor (née Thurlow). His early life was varied and interesting. He was educated at Cheltenham College, and went from there to Balliol Colleg

Bernard George Albert Lilwall was born at Ramsgate on 21 November 1914, the eldest son of John Edward Lilwall, a company director and Georgina, née Bomford. He was educated at Chatham Grammar School, Ramsgate, Belmont Preparatory School, Mill Hill, and Mill Hill School before studying at Guy's Hospi

William Beattie was a consultant surgeon in Liverpool. He was born in Sheffield on 1 February 1911. He was the second child of James Martin Beattie, Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Liverpool and Margaret Crow née Kettle. He was educated at Fettes, from which he won an open exhibition