Idris William Adams was born at Tonyrefail, South Wales on 14 June 1940 the son of Philip Darwin Adams, a schoolmaster and Fiona Mary, née Jenkins, a headmistress. He was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School where he was head boy in 1958 before entering Charing Cross Hospital Medical School which he

Irvine Roger Stillman was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 29 September 1915 and after early education went to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, graduating with a BA degree and later proceeding to MA. His clinical studies were undertaken at Oxford University and the Radcliffe Infir

Leonard Penrynne Bandera Kiriclla received his professional education at the University of Ceylon, qualifying MB BS in 1947. After coming to Britain he gained the DLO in 1053 and both the English and the Edinburgh Fellowships in 1957. He held posts at St James's Hospital, Balham and at St Mary Ab

Herbert Kitchener Bourns was born in County Galway on 14 July 1916, the sixth of seven children of Harry J Bourns, a farmer and landowner, and his wife Esther Josephine, née Cornwall. His early education was at St Columba's College near Dublin, after which he entered Trinity College Dublin for his m

Matthew Choyce, the son of David Choyce (q.v. above) and Diana Graham, was born on 28 June 1963. He read medicine at Oxford and then did junior jobs at the United Hospitals in Bath and the Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. He specialised in accident and emergency medicine, becoming first registrar at the

Abani Kumar Chowdhury passed his MB in Calcutta in 1946 and his FRCS in 1958. He came to England and became a surgical registrar to the Walsall Hospital Group. In the 1960s he became senior casualty officer (and later consultant) to the accident and emergency department of Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

Ranjit Basu was born on 15 August 1926 and studied for his MB BS at Grant Medical College in Bombay. He became a Fellow of the College in 1957 and came to England to live in Liverpool. He became surgical registrar at Alder Hey Children's Hospital and then senior registrar at the Liverpool Thoraci

Olney, who was born in 1950, received his medical education at Westminster Hospital, qualifying with the conjoint diploma and the London MB BS in 1973. After a year working in various surgical specialties in Australia, he completed his training in Yorkshire. He was tutor in accident and plastic surg

Denley Clark was a consultant surgeon at Pinderfields Hospital and Pontefract General Infirmary. He was born in Thailand (then Siam) on 12 August 1908. His father, Percy Leonard Archibald Clark, was a missionary, as was his mother, Mary Lenore née Denley. He was educated in Thailand until the age of

Albert Patrick ('Paddy') Dignan was a former director of Army surgery. He was a remarkable character who was born into a modest family in Dublin. His father, Joseph, a tailor, was able to get all five of his sons through medical school. (Whether an ability to stitch can be inherited remains open to

Major General Norman Rogers was the director of Army surgery, and during his career encouraged the training of Army surgeons and the study of military wounding at the research establishment at Porton Down. He was born on 14 October 1916 in Long Acre, central London, the only child of Charles William

John Noel Nish was born in Benalla, Victoria, Australia, in 1913, the son of a general practitioner and the grandson of the Reverend Dr Nish who left Scotland to preach to the goldminers in Bendigo. He was educated at Geelong Grammar School before entering Trinity College, Melbourne, for medical stu