Rudolph Blach was dean of the Institute of Ophthalmology, London, and a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital. He was the son of Hedwig Jeanette Blach, a nurse companion. She was originally from Germany, but became a British citizen in 1948, at the same time as her son. Blach stud

Colin Palmer was born in China in 1929. Walter Attwell Lynch Palmer (1892-1975), his father, worked for the Shanghai municipal police force before a career with the Asiatic Petroleum Company. In the early 1920’s his mother, Lillian Emily née Burton, travelled out to China for their wedding. Colin s

Barrie Samuel Jay was professor of clinical ophthalmology at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University of London. He was born in London on 7 May 1929, the son of Maurice Bernard Jay, a medical practitioner, and Julia Sterling Jay, a housewife. He attended Perse School and then Gonville and Caius Co

Pierre Hein was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Northampton General Hospital from 1979 to 2000. He was born on 8 April 1937 in Mauritius, the son of Marcelle Hein née Piat and Sir Raymond Hein, a senior barrister and former mayor of the capital, Port Louis. Pierre grew up in Mauritius, with Fr

Harold Vernon Ingram was born in Durham on 6 June 1902, the second child and elder son of William Jesse Ingram, a headmaster, university lecturer and bursar of Bede College, and of Eleanor Ingram (née Coates). From school he went to the College of Medicine of Durham University and qualified in 1924.