John Laurence Mercer was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Broad Green and Fazakerley hospitals, Liverpool. He was born in 1932, the elder son of Major Laurence Walter Mercer, studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and qualified MB BS in 1958. He won the Hallett prize in 1960 a

Martin Lowy was an orthopaedic surgeon at the Whittington Hospital, London. He was born in Aussig, Czechoslovakia, on 12 December 1933, the son of Julius Lowy, a general practitioner, and Helen Lowy née Wagner. He survived three years in a concentration camp and went to the UK at the age of 11 with

Julian Neely was a consultant surgeon in north Sussex, working at Crawley Hospital, Horsham Hospital and the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. His father, Geoffrey Cavendish Neely, was of Irish descent. He was a saxophonist who ran a dance band in London. His mother, Dorothy Isobel Bruce né

Desmond Ian Ralph Higton, always known as 'Ian', was a general surgeon in Bromley. He was born on 9 December 1934, the elder son of John William Higton, managing director of a coach building company, and Olive Gwendoline Higton née Smith. He was educated at Farnham Grammar School, Surrey, King's Col