Benjamin John Fowler was born in 1917 in Peterborough where he attended the King's School before entering Guy's Hospital to qualify in 1941. He was called up for Army service, working as a general duties medical officer with some experience in surgery. While in North Africa he was created Chevalier

John Howard Egbert Verdon qualified in 1941 from St Thomas's Hospital in London. He held house appointments at the East Suffolk and Ipswich Hospital and the Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital. He was then appointed surgical registrar to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital and eventually became senior

Claude Brun was a consultant surgeon in Blackburn. He was born on 23 August 1917 in Mauritius. His father, René Brun, was a bank clerk in Port Louis who was descended from a captain in the Napoleonic navy. His mother, Jeanne Brun, was also of French descent. Claude was the eldest of six children. Hi

Robert Bell was born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, on 22 November 1917. His father, Robert Duncan Bell, was a farmer, having previously been a missionary to the Ojibway and Chinook Indians. His mother was Violet Lydia Clarke, daughter of an actor-manager from Bilston in Staffordshire, England. Rob

Wallace Black was born at 14 Park View Road, Finchley on 12 September 1917; his father, James Black was a company director and his mother was Jane Duckworth, whose father was an electrical engineer. Black was educated at Finchley County School and at King's College London, and Westminster Hospital M

Charles Edward Drew, eldest son of Edwin Frank Drew, an accountant, and of Eunice (née Lloyd-Davies) was born in Lambeth on 15 December 1916. He was educated at an elementary school in Stockwell and at Westminster City School and then secured an open scholarship in 1935 to King's College, London, an