Born at Brixton on 13 August 1866, eldest son and second of the seven children of John Bisdee Fawcett, of Lloyd's, and Ellen Hyslop, his wife. His father and mother both died when he was eleven, and the children were brought up by their uncle, Robert Grant, and his wife. He was educated at Dulwich a

Somewhat above middle height, clean-shaven with prematurely white hair and of ascetic appearance, Cecil Beadles was unmarried and lived for his garden and the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was so excessively shy that he was rarely seen even by his colleagues unless they went