Sundram Pillai studied medicine at the Westminster Hospital and Guy's. He passed the Conjoint Diploma in 1939 and the FRCS in 1949. He was outpatients' officer to Moorfields Eye Hospital, senior house surgeon to the Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital, Maidstone, and ophthalmic registrar to the Swansea

Mary was born in 1911, the elder daughter of Howard and Mary Bodley Savory. Her medical education was at Cambridge and University College Hospital, and her ophthalmic training as SHO and registrar at Royal Eye and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospitals. She held a BMA research scholarship in 1946 and

Bernard Fairburn, the son of Lazarus and Leah Fairburn (née Margolin) was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on 3 August 1916. He was educated at Bec School, Battersea, securing an arts scholarship in 1933 before entering the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in the following year. He qualified MRCS,

James Hudson was an ophthalmic surgeon at Moorfields in London. He was born on 15 February 1916 in New Britain, Connecticut, USA. His father, William Shand, was a mechanical engineer and farmer. His mother was Ethel Summerskill. He was educated in Massachusetts, at Winchester County Day School and t

Frederick Samuel Gorrill was born on 30 July 1913 at Okehampton, Devon, the son of a village constable. He was educated at Torquay Grammar School and King's College, London, where he obtained an honours BSc in chemistry in 1934. He became involved in research in biochemistry, and was later appointed

Geoffrey Fisk was a senior orthopaedic surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. He was born in Goodmayes, Essex, on 26 May 1916. His father, Harry Marcus Fisk, company director of Meredith and Drew, the biscuit manufacturers, was a descendent of an ancient Suffolk family. One of his ancestors