Alec McMillan was born at Brierley Hill, Staffordshire on 14 August 1900. Little is known of his career until he was commissioned in the regular army in 1928. He served in India and China before crossing to France with the BEF in 1939. He was safely evacuated at Dunkirk and then returned overseas to

There are no details of John Francis Edward Gillam's date of birth, family, education or early medical appointments. He qualified from St Thomas's Hospital in 1925 and took the FRCS four years later. In 1931 he moved to a general practice partnership at Haverfordwest where he also practised surgery.

Stephen Power was born in Reading in 1902 the son of a general practitioner in Stamford Hill in North London. He was educated at St Ignatius College and the London Hospital Medical School, graduating MB, BS in 1925. He was appointed house surgeon and subsequently clinical assistant at the London and

Richard Maliphant was born in Merthyr Tydfil on 17 January 1900, the second son of Richard Maliphant, an official in the Cyfartha steel works, and of Mary Morgan, daughter of a coal merchant. He was educated at Cyfartha Secondary School and went straight into the RNVR where he served in 1917-1918 as

Ernest Arthur Freeman was born on 20 September 1900 at Streatham, London, and educated at Westminster City School. He was called up in the last few weeks of the first world war and served as a private in the Royal West Surreys. With his ex-serviceman's grant he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1

Eric William Riches, the second child and eldest son of William Riches, a schoolmaster, and of Kate Riches (née Rowbotham), was born on 29 July 1897, at Alford, Lincolnshire. He was educated at St Dunstan's, Alford, and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Alford, before securing an entrance scholarship