Alfred Mark Abrahams was born on 30 December 1912 in Norwich, the third son of Herman Abrahams, minister of religion, and Zelda. He was educated at Holy Trinity School and King George V Grammar School Southport, from where he was the first boy to win a Southport Borough Scholarship and the Robert Ge

Jean Sandel was born towards the end of 1916, her parents' only child, in the small community of Taumarunui, twenty-five miles west of Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. She was educated at the Girls' High School, New Plymouth (on the coast, sixty miles west of her home), b

Ernest Thom McCartney was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, the son of Robert McCartney, a chemist, and his wife, Kathleen, née Thom. He was educated at Coleraine Institute and Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied medicine. He went on to training posts at Victoria Central Hospital, Wallasey,

William Girdwood was born in Johannesburg on 25 May 1913, the son of William, a general practitioner and FRCS Edinburgh. Two uncles and his grandfather were all doctors, training in Edinburgh. After Grey High School, Port Elizabeth, William entered Witwatersrand University and won the South African

Alan Sutherland had some remarkable experiences as a doctor at war. He was a prisoner of war for one day when, as a member of the 6th Field Ambulance, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, he was captured by German paratroops during the evacuation from Crete in 1941. They were killed so he escaped. L

Leslie Peter Clark was born in New Zealand in 1909 and after early education entered Otago Medical School. He qualified in 1914 and two years later came to England where he undertook house officer appointments at All Saints' Hospital and the West London Hospital. At the outbreak of war he was on the

Stanley Francis Reid, while a medical student at Melbourne, took a keen interest in flying and was one of a small band of students who joined the Citizen Air Force at Laverton, where he won his 'wings'. After qualifying MB BS Melbourne in 1936 he held posts as RMO in the Royal Melbourne Hospital, 19

Donald Patrick Robertson qualified MD from Manitoba University in 1938. He passed the FRCS in 1947. He was surgeon to the Public General Hospital and St Joseph's Hospital in Chatham, Ontario, before joining the surgical staff of the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital in Huntsville, Ontario. He

John Bryant Curtis qualified MB BS at Melbourne University in 1939. After two years in junior posts at the Royal Melbourne Hospital he served as a medical officer with the Royal Australasian Air Force from 1943 to 1946 and in the latter year gained the MS from his university. In the following year h

Richard Pomfret Jepson was born in Whalley, Lancashire, on 15 February 1918, the son of Mr W N and Mrs L E Jepson. He was educated at St Mary's Grammar School, Clitheroe, and at Manchester University where he won colours for cricket, soccer and golf. He graduated in 1941 and after early house appoin

Boris Lewin was born in Poland in 1913 and graduated at Cape Town in 1938. He then held house appointments at King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban and joined the South African Army Medical Corps on the outbreak of war. He was posted to a field ambulance in Egypt and shortly afterwards became a prison

Eric Musard Nanson was born in Geraldine, South Canterbury, New Zealand, on 4 January 1915, the youngest of five children of Gerald Bouchier Nanson, an Anglican vicar and Gertrude Florence (née Bell). His early education was at the Cathedral Grammar School, Christchurch and at Christ's College, Chri