Dipak Bhatia was head of India's national family planning programme in the 1960s. He was born in Punjab on 27 November 1909 and educated in Lahore, leaving high school at the age of 14. After receiving an MB BS degree from Lahore Medical College, he went to England and stayed in London for a few yea

William Alexander Law, known as Scottie, was born in Edinburgh on 22 August 1910, the only son of James Law, dental surgeon, and his wife Agnes, née Jarvis. He was educated at Giggleswick School and won an open scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, where he obtained first class honours in the

Brendan Hickey was a consultant general surgeon and urologist at Morrison Hospital, Swansea, and spent some time as a professor of surgery in Khartoum and as a surgical specialist to the Iraq government. He was born on 20 June 1912 in Newton Hyde, Cheshire, where his father, John Edward Hickey, was

Arthur Siddons was a consultant thoracic surgeon at St George's Hospital in London. He was born on 17 January 1911 in Harrow, Middlesex, and was sent to Harrow School. He went on to Jesus College, Cambridge, and then to St George's Hospital, where he qualified in 1935. In 1941, he was appointed as a

Born on 5 October 1910 in Lanchowfu, Kansu Province, China, he was the elder son of Albert Penard Laycock, a medical missionary and Winifred, née Hingston. He was educated at St Paul's School, West Kensington, where he was a Scholar. He gained scholarships to St John's College, Cambridge and to St T

Harry McGladdery was born on 9 September 1911 in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, to Kevin McGladdery, a farmer and landowner, and Margaret Wilson, a schoolteacher. He was educated at Walthamstow Technical College and Sir George Monoux School, before entering St Bartholomew's Hospital, one of

Born in Sandwich, Kent, on 30 September 1910, John Richard Rose's father, William Richard Rose, was a wholesale grocer, JP, county councillor and was twice Mayor of Sandwich. His mother was Beatrice Matilda Paragreen, a musician and poet, and a governor of St Thomas's Hospital. He was educated at Si

Arthur Bryson was an orthopaedic surgeon in China, Nigeria and London. He was born in China in 1910, the son and grandson of a well-known missionary family. After surgical training in England he returned to China with the Council for World Mission, serving with the Chinese Red Cross in the Sino-Japa

Brian Thomas came from a strong medical background. His father was a consultant ophthalmologist at Swansea and his father before him was also a doctor, while his mother, Florence, was an Edinburgh medical graduate and her father a general practitioner. Also two uncles and his brothers were in medici

'Tim' Merrington was an accomplished surgeon whose career was blighted but whose spirit was undimmed by multiple sclerosis. Within four years of becoming consultant surgeon to University College Hospital, an appointment for which his earlier achievements had long marked him out, he developed the fir

Guy Blackburn was born on 20 November 1911 in Harrogate, the eldest son of Dr A E Blackburn, a general practitioner, who later moved to Beckenham, Kent. Guy was educated at Rugby (without great exposure to the game!), Clare College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Medical College. At Clare he took u

Jack Collis was a pioneering thoracic surgeon. He was born in Harborne, Birmingham, on 14 July 1911, the son of Walter Thomas Collis, an industrial chemist, and Dora Charton Reay. His choice of medicine was greatly influenced by his local GP and his two medical uncles, one of whom was a professor of