Edward (‘Ted’) Watson was a general surgeon at Wellington Hospital, New Zealand. He was born in Dunedin, the eldest child of Vera Christian Watson née Cameron and Edward Baden Watson; his father was a surgeon, his mother a music teacher. He had two siblings – Arthur and Diane. Ted’s childhood years

Alan Robert Trist was a surgeon in Sydney, New South Wales. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, where his Australian father, also Alan Robert Trist, a forester, was studying at Yale University. Trist’s mother was Ivy Alma Trist née Priebe. The family returned to Australia when he was two and

Donald Beard was the first director of surgery at Modbury Hospital in South Australia and served with distinction in the Korean and Vietnam wars. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 22 February 1925, the son of Harold Douglas Beard, a civil servant, and Alison Mavis Beard née Wright, a hous

Ken Brearley started life in Hampton (Melbourne) where he attended both Hampton Primary and Hampton High schools before winning a scholarship for Years 9-12 at Scotch College, which was quite some distance away in Hawthorn. In 1948, having won a place into Medicine at the University of Melbourne in

Jelal Moochool Shah was born in 1886. He studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1915 he passed the Conjoint Examination. He joined the Indian Medical Service and in 1927 attained the rank of Major. He served in Egypt and Persia in the first world war. He was honorary consultant in venereolo

John Gordon Smart was appointed to the Leicester Royal Infirmary as a general surgeon with an interest in urology in 1965. Later he became the first pure urologist to the hospital and was responsible for building up the urology unit to become the largest in the Trent region. Possessing an administra

Norman Winstone was a consultant surgeon at Selly Oak, Birmingham. He was born in Gidea Park, Essex, on 8 February 1924, the son of Herbert Charles Winstone, a property manager, and Kate née Robinson, a policeman's daughter. He was educated at Gidea Park College and Romford Royal Liberty School, bef

John Fairgrieve was a consultant vascular and general surgeon in Cheltenham who, in his youth, was an outstanding sprinter representing Great Britain in the 1948 Olympic Games and reaching the quarter final in the 200m. Although John was English, being born in London, he had Scottish roots as bot

Mihir Kumar Senapati was a medical officer in Nigeria. He was born on 30 December 1925, the second son of Nilamani Senapati, an administrator in the Indian Civil Service, and Indumati Senapati née Niyogi. He was educated at the Doon School in Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh, India, where he gained the schoo

Cyril Toker was chief of surgical pathology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. He was born in Ermelo, South Africa on 29 March 1930, the first of two sons of Philip and Fay Toker. Philip and Fay Toker immigrated as young children with their families to South Africa from Lit

Lieutenant General Anand Mohan Ahuja was a pioneering cardiothoracic surgeon in the Indian Armed Forces Medical Services. He was born at Lyallpur in the Punjab region of India on 1 November 1923, the second of five brothers. His father was Jivan Das Ahuja, a physician, who encouraged all his sons to

'Dare' Watkins was born in Bristol on 29 December 1925. His father, Henry Herbert Watkins, and mother, Brenda Florence née Taylor-Milton, were both dentists. He was educated at King William College, Isle of Man, where he was an enthusiastic sportsman. Later, he went to Liverpool University Medical S