John Alan East qualified in medicine in 1938 having trained at Guy's Hospital Medical School. He took the Conjoint Diploma in 1937 and the College Fellowship in 1939. He worked as consultant surgeon to the South East Metropolitan Hospitals Board in London. On moving to the USA he became surgeon to t

Patrick Sames was a general surgeon in Bath with an interest in coloproctology. He was born on 17 January 1912 in Enfield, Middlesex, the only son of Christopher, a railway clerk, and Caroline née Radmore. He was a late entrant to medicine, leaving Harrow County School to become an apprentice in the

Bob Lamming was born in Hull on 6 December 1910, the son of Robert Sydney Lamming, a timber merchant's clerk, and Clara Gertrude Redfearn, a solicitor's daughter. He was educated at Bridlington School, Yorkshire, and Leeds University, where he won pre-clinical and clinical scholarships, and the Will

Alexander John Heriot was born on 28 May 1914 in London. He was the youngest of the three sons of Robert and Lillie Elizabeth Heriot. His father had been born in Edinburgh in 1878 and migrated to London to start a building and decorating business in the early 1900's. He married Lillie, a London-trai

John Fairbank was born on 26 June 1912 in London, the only son of Sir Thomas Fairbank, the first orthopaedic surgeon to the Charing Cross Hospital, and Florence Kathleen née Ogilvie. He was educated at Wellesley House, Broadstairs, and then at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, as senior scholar,

David Wallace was one of the foremost urological surgeons in Britain after the second world war, and his work with Dr Roger Pugh at the Institute of Urology led to important advances in our understanding of urological malignancies. Working with Julian Bloom he also set up a multi-centre trial for th

Brodie Hughes was born in Broadstairs, Kent, on 21 September 1913, the son of E T C Hughes, MRCS, assistant medical superintendent of Lewisham Infirmary. He was educated at Eastbourne College and University College, London, before going to University College Hospital for clinical studies. He qualifi

Jack Small was born on 18 March 1913 in Birmingham, the son of Ernest Small MBE, a mechanical engineer who designed the barrage balloon winches used in air defence in the second world war, and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth, née Morton. Jack was educated at Wylde Green College and Birmingham Universit

Wilfrid Peter Greening (usually called 'Peter') was a former consultant surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital. He was born in Saxlingham, Norfolk, on 16 May 1914, the only child of the reverend William C Greening, the local rector, and his wife Maud Mary, née Waller. His father died when he was seve

Jim Ellis was professor of orthopaedic and accident surgery at the University of Southampton. He was born on 13 April 1912 in Selborne, Hampshire, the son of Frank Stokes Ellis, a wine merchant who went on to serve in the First World War with the Royal Fusiliers, and Ada née Parkes, whose family wer

An accomplished and successful obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dame Josephine was also known to the wider world for her devotion to social and educational reform, and was seen by many as an exemplar for the role of professional women in modern society. Josephine Barnes, happily known to her famil

Lord Smith was one of our great presidents. Successive holders of that office have faced many and various challenges, but by any measure the confrontation between the Labour government and the BMA from 1974 to 1975 was a major crisis that threatened the future of consultant practice. Rodney Smith, a