Surgeon Vice-Admiral Sir Cyril May, formerly medical director-general of the Royal Navy, was born in London on 12 June, 1897, the only child of Robert and Clara May. His father practised as a dental surgeon. After education at South Belgravia Preparatory School and Westminster School he served in th

Educated at Cambridge and at St George's Hospital, where he was house physician and resident obstetric assistant after qualifying in 1923. He proceeded to his Cambridge degrees in 1926, and took the Fellowship in 1932. During the second world war he served with the rank of lieutenant-Colonel in t