Basil Arthur Ward was born on 26 October 1916, and was educated at Cranleigh School and St Thomas's Hospital where he qualified in 1942 with the degrees of London University, obtaining honours and distinction in surgery. He was appointed house surgeon prior to being commissioned as a Lieutenant in t

Athol George Riddell was born in Whitstable on 31 January 1917. He was educated at Folkestone and University College, London, where he gained the Gold Medal in physiology, graduating from University College Hospital Medical School in 1939. After holding a resident surgical post on the Professorial U

John Hadfield was an outstanding teacher and ambassador for British surgery. He was born in Long Ashton near Bristol on 19 April 1923. His family hailed from Plymouth. His father, Geoffrey Hadfield, was professor of pathology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and later became the Sir William Collins prof