'Sealy' (as he was widely known) was born in Randalstown County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He was the only child of William and Agnes Wood. His mother, a New Zealander, was one of the "First 50" nurses to serve in the First World War. She returned to New Zealand with Sealy when he was two years old a

Kenneth Mackenzie MacLeod graduated BA Columbia University, New York, in 1926, and then studied at Cornell where he obtained the MD degree in 1929. He continued post-graduate study in Edinburgh, and at the Middlesex Hospital and passed the Conjoint Diploma examination in 1930. He was senior house-su

Richard Dennis Wilkins studied medicine at Oxford University and St Thomas's Hospital, London. He qualified MRCS in 1941 and FRCS in 1948. Returning to Canada he entered family practice while also doing some general surgery. He became consultant surgeon to the Marine General Hospital, Goderich, the

William Hamer, son of William, a chartered accountant, and his wife, Alice Marjorie, née Evans, was born in London on 22 July 1919. From Boston Grammar School and Oakham School, Rutland, he went to St Mary's Hospital, London. He held house appointments at the Postgraduate Medical School and was infl

John Holmes Tasker was born in London on 20 January 1917, the son of Dr Ludwig Tasker, a general practitioner, and May, née Gadsden, a registered nurse. He was educated at Epsom College before entering Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1935 with the Haviland exhibition. After completing pre-clin

Eustace Victor Hope, the younger son and second of three children of Herbert Ashworth Hope, a barrister and company chairman, was born on 3 June 1914 at Church Stretton, Shropshire. He was educated at Stowe School and Trinity College, Cambridge, before entering St Thomas's Hospital Medical School an