Denis Bartlett was a consultant ENT surgeon at Victoria Hospital, Kingston upon Thames. He was born on 16 October 1918 and studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. He qualified with the conjoint examination in 1942. Prior to his consultant post at the Victoria Hospital, he wa

Cyril Cooling was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital and then medical superintendent of Benenden Hospital in Kent. The second son of Frank Cooling, a newsagent, and Lilian M Cooling née Waygood, he won the coveted Bucknill scholarship to enter University College Hospital in 1941, the

John Gwyn Howell (Toby) James was born in Pontypridd on 5 May 1919 to Thomas Edwin James, a bank manager, and his wife Margaret, née Williams, a farmer's daughter. After early education in South Wales he studied medicine in Cardiff, and graduated MRCS, LRCP at the Welsh National School of Medicine i

Kingsley Lawrance was born in London on 22 July 1924, into a Quaker family. His father, Henry, was a builder and contractor. His mother was Elsie Ruth née Ramsbotham. He was educated at Highgate School, from which he went to St Bartholomew's, qualifying in 1946. After a year on the house at Bart's,

Alan Murley was born in Gidea Park, Essex, on 9 November 1923, the son of George Fraser Murley, an insurance broker, and Winifred Annie Gunary. He was educated at the Royal Liberty School, Romford, where he excelled in sports, being captain of his cricket and football teams. Despite being offered a

Jan Milan Kodicek was born in Prague in 1924 but after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, while still a schoolboy, he was forced to leave his native land and seek refuge in Britain. He entered St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1945 and after house appointments in general surgery and EN