Thomas Henry Cullen (Tom) was born on 6 February 1917 in Kelvedon, Essex. A farmer’s son, he was born and brought up on Clarke’s Farm. Educated at Colchester Grammar School, he opted to study medicine as farming in Essex was not particularly productive in the 1930s. He entered the Middlesex Hospital

Lakhumal Hiranand Hiranandani was a pioneering ear, nose and throat surgeon, social activist and philanthropist. Born on 17 September 1917 in Tatta which was in the Sindh province of India and is now part of Pakistan, he was the first son of Hiranand Hiranandani, a businessman, and his wife, Lila. A

Cyril John Evans was born in Llandysul, Cardiganshire on 12 June 1915, the son of William, the postmaster, and Letitia (Morgan). He was educated at University College, Cardiff and University College Hospital, London, qualifying MRCS LRCP in 1938 and graduating MB BS London 1939. He trained in surger

Rustom Jamshed Maneksha was head of the department of plastic surgery at Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital in Mumbai. Born on 14 February 1920 in Bombay, he was the second child of Jamshed Maneksha, assistant professor of anatomy at Grant Medical College and his wife, Goolbai. His maternal grandfather, Jehan

Arsene Klidjian was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on 22 April 1918. His father, Karnig Klidjian, was a pharmacist and among those who had fled Armenia in the Turkish massacres. Arsene was educated at Victoria College. His elder brother was expected to help run the family business, but Arsene was sent t

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

Carlton Oswald Fung-Kee-Fung was an obsteric surgeon in Trinidad and Tobago. Born in 1920, he was the eldest of the four children of a second generation Chinese family who ran a liquor shop in what was then known as British Guiana. In 1939 he travelled to the UK and arrived in London just before the

Muriel Crouch was a consultant surgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, the South London Hospital for Women and Children and Mount Vernon Hospital. She was one of the early female surgeons whose faith as a committed Christian pervaded all that she did. Born in 1914 into a Christian ho

Kevin Walter Priddis was a consultant gynaecologist at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia. He was born on 3 July 1913 in Trangie, a small town near Dubbo in north western New South Wales, the son of Frederick Walter Priddis, a publican, and Margaret Priddis née McCarthy. There were four childr

Kenneth Whittle Martin, known as 'Poppy' to his family, was a general surgeon in Worthing with an interest in urology. He came from a long line of doctors dating back to at least 1774. He was born on 18 July 1917 in Singapore, the son of William Whittle Martin, an army ENT surgeon, and his wife Kati

Gordon France was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Lewisham Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup. He was born in Heckmondwike, west Yorkshire, on 12 July 1912. His father was a cabinet maker and joiner, and his mother, Harriet Alice née Firth, a dressmaker. From Heckmondwike Grammar School,

Joscelyn (‘Jos’) Penrose was an orthopaedic surgeon for some 37 years, progressing from his first post at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, to his retirement as a senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Coventry and Warwickshire group of hospitals. Born on 15 August 1915 in Banbury, Oxfordshire,