Born at Aleppo, son of Dr A A Altounyan, an Armenian, founder of the hospital of his name in Aleppo, and his Northern-Irish wife, he was educated at Rugby, went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he was an exhibitioner, and then to the Middlesex Hospital. The greater part of his surgical ca

Downie, who was sometimes referred to by colleagues by his nickname 'Nick', received his medical education at Birmingham University. During the second world war he served in the RAMC with the rank of lieutenant colonel and was awarded the DSO, OBE and MC. He was surgical registrar at Queen Elizabeth