Ashall was born in Addis Ababa in 1954 and received his medical education at St Mary's Hospital, whence he qualified in 1978. Dr Geoffrey Irvine, the medical superintendent at Chogoria Hospital in Kenya, where Ashall spent three months in 1973, inspired Ashall to turn to surgery after qualification;

Mendel Gordon was born on 31 May 1902. He went to school in Bournemouth before training at King's College, London and Charing Cross Medical School, where he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1929 and was awarded the Governor's gold medal in medicine and surgery. After house surgeon appointments

Joseph Patrick Irwin Reidy (Pete) was born in London on 30 October 1907, the second son of four brothers and three daughters: his father Jerome Reidy MD was a general practitioner, son of a doctor, who practised in the Commercial Road and who had married an Irish nurse, Miss F W Dawson. His educatio

Bruce Bailey was an innovative plastic surgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, on 29 February 1928, where his father, John Bailey, was national secretary of the Cooperative party. His mother was Anne née Glaser, the daughter of a tailor. He was educated at Bradford

James Emerson was born in Chesterfield in 1947, qualified at the Middlesex Hospital, where he did his house jobs, and, immediately he had registered, went to Colombia to work in an outlying district hospital. He always retained this interest in rural life in South America and a concern for the needs

John Samuel Pattison Wilson, or ‘Iain’, as he was generally known, was a plastic surgeon in London with a particular interest in head and neck surgery. He was born in Edinburgh on 16 October 1923, and at the age of six went away to boarding school at the Edinburgh Academy. He remained in Edinburgh t

Benjamin Rank was considered by many to be the father of plastic surgery in Australia. He was born on 14 January 1911 in Heidelberg, Victoria, where his father, Wreghitt Rank, owned a grain store and mill. His mother was Bessie née Smith. He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, and Ormond Coll

Bernard Crawford was a plastic surgeon in Sheffield. He was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire, on 30 November 1919. His father, Alfred Edgar Crawford, was a teacher, and his mother, Nellie Cooper, a nurse. He was educated at Rotherham Grammar School and Sheffield University, where his teachers included E

William Goldthorpe 'Bill' Holdsworth was a senior consultant surgeon at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton. Born on 18 October 1911, he was educated at Scotch College and Carey Baptist Grammar School, Melbourne, and graduated from Melbourne University in 1933. In 1935 he went to England, and on the a

John Frederick North (known as 'JFN') was a consultant plastic surgeon in the west Midlands. He was born in Southport, Lancashire, on 12 May 1917, the only child of John William Allen North, a solicitor, and Frances Jane North née Allen. He went to school at Cheltenham College, and studied medicine

John Jeffs was a consultant plastic surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, London. He was born in Tredegar, Gwent, where his father, Victor Henry Jeffs, was the local butcher. His mother was Ivy Elizabeth Jeffs née Lewis. He went to Lewis School in Pengam. His medical training was at Guy's Hospital, whe

Martin Kelly was a craniofacial plastic surgeon at the Chelsea and Westminster, and Royal Marsden hospitals. An extraordinarily talented surgeon, he died of a heart attack at the young age of 43, stunning his colleagues. He was born Martin Hirigoyen in London on 7 May 1965, the son of Bernard Hirig