Born 20 July 1876 at Gosberton, Lincs, the second son of Richard Jocelyn Swan (1849-1925), MRCS 1870 (see *Lancet*, 1925, 2, 1257), and his wife Ana Elizabeth, elder daughter of Robert Russell Harper, MRCS 1875, of Holbeach, Lincs. R J Swan was the second son of John W Swan, MRCS 1835, of Ballyragge

Born on 16 August 1876 and brought up in South Africa, he was educated at Westminster School and St Thomas's Hospital where he had an outstanding career as a student. After qualifying in 1900 with the Conjoint Diploma he served as assistant house surgeon and house surgeon. In 1902 he graduated MB BS

John William Thomson Walker was born at Newport, Fife on 6 August 1871, the second child and second son of John H Walker, chairman of the Caldrow jute works, Dundee, and Isabella Thomson, his wife. He was educated at the Dundee High School and at the Edinburgh Institution. He then matriculated at th

Gerald Tresidder ('GCT') was born on 5 December 1912 in Rawalpindi where his father, Lt Col Alfred Geddes Tresidder, FRCS, was a surgeon in the Indian Medical Service. His was mother Lilian Annie, née Trelease. His career followed what was then the Anglo-Indian norm: 'home' at the age of eight, scho

Nils Kock, professor of surgery and chief of the department of surgery II, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, was an eminent colorectal surgeon, widely known for his development of the 'Kock pouch', a continent pouch formed by using the terminal ileum after colectomy. Known as 'Nicke' to

Ivan Jose was born on 13 February 1893 in China where his father was an Anglican missionary. When he was ten years old the family moved to Adelaide, South Australia, where his father became first the Rector of Christ Church, North Adelaide, and later Dean of the Adelaide diocese. Ivan had two younge

Eric William Riches, the second child and eldest son of William Riches, a schoolmaster, and of Kate Riches (née Rowbotham), was born on 29 July 1897, at Alford, Lincolnshire. He was educated at St Dunstan's, Alford, and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Alford, before securing an entrance scholarship

Born at Petworth on January 7th, 1844, the son of William Morris, surgeon of that place, and grandson of a Morris practising in North Wales. The surname Morris has been traced in particular to families of mixed Welsh and Jewish descent who settled on the Welsh border after the explusion of the Jews

Jack Kenneth Willson-Pepper, or 'John' as he was always known, was a consultant surgeon in York specialising in urology. He was born in Folkestone on 1 November 1904, where his father, Albert Edward Pepper, was a prominent local businessman and three times mayor. His mother was Mary Southee White, t

R H O B Robinson was born in 1897 in London. He was known to his friends as Joey. His childhood was spent in Upper Wimpole Street where his father practised as a consulting surgeon; and he lived all his days in a world of surgery that was changing. His career spanned the years that marked the evo

Born in London on 12 May 1898 the son of Marriott Edwin Nicholls he was educated at the City of London School, Clare College, Cambridge and St George's Hospital, London. His undergraduate studies were interrupted by the first world war, during which he enlisted with the Royal Fusiliers at the age of

Born at Framlingham, Suffolk, on August 6th, 1820, the only son of Henry Thompson, a tradesman who kept the village shop, by his wife Susannah, daughter of Samuel Medley (1769-1857), the artist who painted the portrait group of the founders of the Medical Society of London, and was one of the founde