Richard John Vulliamy Battle was born on 21 January 1907 at 49 Harley Street, London Wl, the son of William Henry Battle, surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital, London, and Annie Marguerite Vulliamy, who was descended from a long line of clockmakers. He was educated at Highfield School, Liphook, Gresham's

William Goldthorpe 'Bill' Holdsworth was a senior consultant surgeon at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton. Born on 18 October 1911, he was educated at Scotch College and Carey Baptist Grammar School, Melbourne, and graduated from Melbourne University in 1933. In 1935 he went to England, and on the a

John Frederick North (known as 'JFN') was a consultant plastic surgeon in the west Midlands. He was born in Southport, Lancashire, on 12 May 1917, the only child of John William Allen North, a solicitor, and Frances Jane North née Allen. He went to school at Cheltenham College, and studied medicine

David Greatrex Maurice was a consultant plastic surgeon at the regional plastic surgery unit in the Newcastle and Hartlepool Hospitals Group and then at Sharoe Green Hospital, Preston. He studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, and qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1943.

Donald Cragg McNeill was a consultant plastic surgeon in Salisbury. He was born in 1935 and was educated at the Southern Grammar School, Portsmouth. He won a scholarship to study medicine and trained at St Mary's, qualifying in 1958. Most of his surgical training took place in the Wessex region, whe

Martin Kelly was a craniofacial plastic surgeon at the Chelsea and Westminster, and Royal Marsden hospitals. An extraordinarily talented surgeon, he died of a heart attack at the young age of 43, stunning his colleagues. He was born Martin Hirigoyen in London on 7 May 1965, the son of Bernard Hirig

John Watson was a consultant plastic surgeon at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead. He was born in Blundellsands, Merseyside, on 10 September 1914. His father, John Watson, a lawyer, died when he was 18 months old. His mother, Annabel Windsor Watson née Thorp, the daughter of a Quaker physician

David Crockett contributed greatly to the specialty of plastic surgery in the Sudan and then in Bradford as a consultant surgeon from 1964 until he retired in 1987. A very gifted man, he enjoyed many hobbies during his very busy professional life and was above all a family man. He was born in North

Jack Burke will be remembered for successfully developing the first commercially reproducible, synthetic human skin. He was born on 22 July 1922 in Chicago, where he grew up. He started studying engineering at the University of Illinois, but left after Pearl Harbor and joined the Army. At the end of

John Jeffs was a consultant plastic surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, London. He was born in Tredegar, Gwent, where his father, Victor Henry Jeffs, was the local butcher. His mother was Ivy Elizabeth Jeffs née Lewis. He went to Lewis School in Pengam. His medical training was at Guy's Hospital, whe

John Kirk was a consultant plastic surgeon at the Tayside Regional Plastic Surgery Unit. He was born in Edinburgh on 23 June 1922, but spent most of the first six years of his life in China, where his mother and father, also John Kirk, were medical missionaries. The family returned to the UK in 1928

Joseph Murray had an illustrious career as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, but his unique achievement was to perform the first successful kidney transplant, on identical twins, in 1954, for which he was awarded a Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1990. He was born in Milford, Massach