Born at Weybridge on 15 May 1862, third son of Arthur Cobbett, provision merchant, and his wife Betsey Holt, and their ninth and youngest child. He was educated at Lancing and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took third-class honours in the Natural Sciences tripos part I, 1884, and came under th

Howard Walter Florey was born on 24 September 1898 at Adelaide. He was educated at St Peter's Collegiate School and at Adelaide University where he graduated in medicine in 1921. He then came to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and worked under Sherrington, obtaining a First in the Honour School of Physio

Born on 11 September 1913, the second son of Henry James and Margaret Ann, Norman Henry Ashton was educated at the West Kensington Central School, King's College and Westminster Hospital. There he won the prize for bacteriology and was editor of the *Gazette*. After junior appointments, he specialis

Herbert Spencer was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on 8 February 1915, the son of Hubert John Spencer, a coat manufacturer, and his wife Edith Maude, née Lodge. His early education was at Highgate Junior and Senior Schools, and he entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School for his medical studies, wh

William St Clair Symmers held the Chair of Pathology at Charing Cross. He was born on 16 August 1917 in Belfast, where his father, William St Clair Symmers, an American who had been born in South Carolina and trained at the University of Aberdeen, was Professor of Pathology and Bacteriology, having

James Brendan Lynch was a consultant pathologist at St James’ Hospital, Leeds and formerly professor of pathology at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. He was born on 9 May 1921 in Wallasey, Cheshire, the third child and second son of Thomas Patrick Lynch, a teacher and headmaster, and Margaret Lync

Jean Pringle (née Rankin) was head of the department of morbid anatomy at the Institute of Orthopaedics, London. She was born on 30 August 1936 to parents who were relatively elderly. Her mother was a teacher and her father was head of the technical college in Coatbridge, Scotland. He was over 60 at

Born on 18 October 1899 at Dalmuir, near Glasgow into a seafaring family, Robert Scarff moved to London at the age of six when his father obtained a post ashore at Tilbury. Robert was educated at the City of London School and the Middlesex Hospital and he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1924,

Herbert Wilberforce Perkins was doubly qualified in surgery and dental surgery. He was the third son of a silk weaver, William Perkins, and his wife Eleanor (Whitworth). Born in London on 29 January 1881 he was educated at Dame Owen's (Brewers' Company) School, London, and at the Middlesex and Royal

Rupert Allan Willis, the elder of two sons of Benjamin James Willis, a banker, was born on 24 December 1898 at Yarram, Victoria, Australia. His mother, Mary Elizabeth Giles (née James), was the daughter of a congregational minister, and his younger brother, James Hamlyn Willis, was a well-known bota

Donald Brian Cater was born on 14 September 1908 in Oundle, Northampton, the second son of a Congregationalist minister, Frederick Ives Cater, and his wife Emmeline (née Rayner). He was educated at Kathaleen Lady Berkley's Grammar School, Wotton-under-Edge and Caterham School, Surrey, before proceed

Cuthbert Dukes, the son of a Congregational minister, was born on 24 July 1890 at Bridgwater, Somerset. He was educated at Caterham School and the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 1914. He served in the RAMC throughout the first world war attached to the Rifle Brigade, and was awarded the OB