Carl August Richard Schulenburg was born in Ventersdorp, Transvaal, South Africa, on 2 February 1915, the son of August Carl Schulenburg, a general practitioner, and Susanna Maria Madgalena née Lemmer, a farmer's daughter. Two of his brothers became GPs, and one sister a midwife. From Ventersdorp Pr

Kenneth Herbert Taylor was born on 7 August 1915, the fourth in a line of a family of doctors, and was educated at Epsom College and St Thomas's Hospital, graduating in 1938. At the outbreak of the second world war he joined the RAMC and served with the Welsh Guards during the evacuation from Dunkir

Barst received his medical education at the Middlesex Hospital and qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1938. Obtaining his Fellowship in 1945, he worked for a time as senior orthopaedic registrar at the Whittington Hospital before taking a post as surgical specialist with the Sudan Government Min

Michael Harmer was consultant surgeon to the Royal Marsden, Paddington Green Children's and St Andrew's Hospitals. He was born in London on 6 July 1912, the third son of William Douglas Harmer, a distinguished surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital. His mother, May Hedley, was the daughter of John Hed

Born on 2 March 1914, Thomas Fenwick was the son of William Stephen Fenwick FRCS of Charing Cross Hospital. He was educated at Sherborne, and then went on to study at Cambridge and St Thomas's Hospital, representing each of these institutions at rugby and cricket. He did house jobs at St Thomas's, b

Raymond Ramsay was born on 19 August 1916 at Peddie, South Africa. He was the youngest child and second son of Alexander Orlando Ramsay, the owner of a trading post, and of his wife Florence, née Tanner. Both parents were born in England; his father (the twelfth child of a preparatory school headmas

Aubrey Joseph Wilson, known as 'Joe', was a consultant surgeon at Derby Royal Infirmary and Children's Hospital. He was born on 23 September 1913, the youngest of the two sons of Thomas Wilson, a general practitioner surgeon and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Edith Mary Cr

James Gardner Jamieson was born in Glasgow on 7 March 1915, the eldest son of James Jamieson, an engineer and Elizabeth (née Tennant). He was educated at Hillhead High School, Glasgow, and at Latymer School, Hammersmith, before entering St Bartholomew's Hospital for medical studies, where he came un

Keith William Powell was born in Australia in 1915 and entered St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1938. After early hospital appointments he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in the early years of the war but was invalided out in 1943 with the rank of Captain. He passed the FRCS ex

A consultant surgeon in south Teesside, 'Sam' Mottershead was a colourful, amusing and forthright person who contributed much to surgery and was a great exponent of clinical anatomy. He was born in Stockport on 5 December 1914, and received his medical education in Manchester, gaining the Tom Jones

Hughlings Jackson, a distant cousin of the great neurologist, was born on 3 October 1912, the youngest of the five children of William Herbert Jackson, a former master mariner who owned a stevedoring business in London and later worked for the Mission to Seamen. His mother was Beatrice née Walker. F

John Bernard Kinmonth, the elder son and eldest of four children of Dr George Henry Kinmonth and Delia Kinmonth (née Daly), was born on 9 May 1916 in Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, Ireland. As a result of the troubles the family migrated to England in 1920 when Dr Kinmonth set up his general practice i