Arnold Levene was a pathologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital who developed the technique of frozen section, meaning tissue samples could be analysed during operations. He was born on 7 December 1924 in Kingston upon Hull, the son of Solomon Levene, a Polish immigrant who became a commercial travell

Ian Macfarlane, the son of James Macfarlane and Islena, née Cromarty, was born on 8 September 1925 in Uckfield, Sussex. He was educated at Seafield Park, Fareham, Hampshire, and received his medical training at the Middlesex Hospital. After qualifying in 1948 he held an appointment as casualty offic

Robert Maclaren was born in Glasgow on 27 October 1923 and was educated at Glasgow Academy. His preclinical medical education was at King's College, London, before qualifying from the Westminster Hospital. After two years of resident appointments at the Westminster and Royal National Orthopaedic Hos

Bernard Fairburn, the son of Lazarus and Leah Fairburn (née Margolin) was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on 3 August 1916. He was educated at Bec School, Battersea, securing an arts scholarship in 1933 before entering the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in the following year. He qualified MRCS,

Richard Dawson was born in 1916 and educated at the Bishop's Stortford College and University College Hospital, qualifying with the conjoint diploma in 1939. He joined the RAMC, although the formality of service life during the war was not very compatible with Dick's debonair and easy manner. He dec

Felix Weale was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Dartford and Gravesend Hospital. He was born in Prague on 15 February 1925 and was a refugee to the United Kingdom in 1939. His father, Frederick Weil, was a journalist and a prominent critic of Hitler in the Czechoslovak press. He was edu

Richard Anthony Payne, known to all as 'Tony', was a consultant general surgeon at the North Middlesex Hospital in London. He was born on 17 July 1921, in Worcester, the son of Herbert George Payne, a master at Haberdasher's Aske's School, and Jessica Sweeney. He was educated at his father's school

Donald Harrison was a leading ear, nose and throat surgeon who campaigned against chewing tobacco. He was born in Portsmouth on 9 March 1925, the son of Frederick William Rees Harrison OBE JP, the principal of the College of Technology for Monmouthshire, and Florence Norris. He was educated at Newpo