Roger Brereton was born on 31 March 1943 in Crewe, where his father was an electrical instrument maker for the railways. After local schooling he went up to Liverpool University Medical School where he graduated in 1966. His inclinations were at first towards obstetrics, taking the DRCOG, and it was

Gamini Wickramarachchi Karunaratne, or 'Gam' as he was always called, was a pioneer of paediatric surgery in Sri Lanka. He was born in Kamburugamuwa, southern Sri Lanka, on 19 April 1929. His father was Wilson Karunaratne and his mother was Tilaka. He had two brothers and five sisters. His early sch

Samia Salem was born in Alexandria in 1948, where her father Hassan Salem was Professor of Tropical Medicine and her mother, Ehsan Naby, was an art teacher. She was educated at the Lycée Français in Alexandria, and then accompanied her father to Iraq in 1964 where she qualified from the University o

Gordon Stuart Baron-Hay was a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth, Western Australia. He was born in Perth on 26 June 1935. His father was George Kingston Baron-Hay, an agriculturalist; his mother, Vera, was a psychiatrist. He was educated at Wesley

John Grieve Whitaker was born in 1895, the son of a doctor who qualified in Belfast, and his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Grieve, was of Scottish descent. His father died when John was eight years old, and the family then moved to Canterbury, a suburb of Melbourne, where he was educated a

Ambrose Jolleys was born on 25 September 1919 in Ireleth, Westmoreland. He was educated at Urmston Grammar School, Manchester, and graduated MB ChB from Liverpool University in 1942. He was appointed a consultant in 1952, the first full-time paediatric surgeon in Manchester. He was a true pioneer

John Francis Rogers Bentley was born in India on 5 March 1920. He entered Guy's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1942. After initial house appointments in the Emergency Medical Service at Guy's Hospital and the North Middlesex Hospital he joined the Indian Medical Service, rising to the rank o

John Meiring Beck was a consultant paediatric surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 10 August 1933. His father, Johannes Henricus Meiring Beck, was a general practitioner; his mother, Mavis Beck née Courtenay, was a legal secretary prior to her marriage. B

Lalit Kumar Sharma was a paediatric surgeon in Rohtak, Haryana, India. He was born on 25 December 1942 in Fatehgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. His family was from Anupshahr, situated on the banks of the Ganges, where they had large landholdings. His grandfather, Mangal Sen Sharma, was a criminal attorne

George Macnab was born in Edinburgh on 12 March 1904, and went to school at Edinburgh Academy. He then proceeded to his medical studies at Edinburgh Unviersity and graduated in 1926. After house appointments in West Hartlepool and at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, he came to London and worked at th

Isabella Forshall was born and spent her childhood in affluent surroundings in Sussex. Details of her family are not recorded but she was educated privately at home where her mother, who read classics at Girton College, Cambridge in the 1890s, had a powerful influence, imbuing her with a keen apprec

Vanessa Wright was a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Royal London Hospital. She was born on 1 August 1943 in Chichester, Sussex, and studied medicine at University College, London, qualifying in 1966. She was a registrar at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton and at University Col