Bruce Sheaves was born on 12 February in Bathurst and attended Bathurst High School. He enrolled at Sydney University to study medicine in 1942. In 1947 he graduated and took up residency at Manly District Hospital, where he eventually became superintendent before leaving in 1951 to move into genera

Adrian Henry was born in Dublin on 22 June 1930, the son of Robert Francis Jack Henry, Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and his wife Stella Christine, née Ross. Adrian spent a year at the Dublin College of Art before studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. His s

Mike Solan was born in Eltham, London, on 31 January 1932. His father, Michael, was a Bank of England official and his mother was Doris Winifred Gladys Rogers, a Librarian. He was educated at Douai Abbey School, Berkshire, and at Woolwich Polytechnic and he attended St Thomas's Hospital Medical Scho

Gamini Wickramarachchi Karunaratne, or 'Gam' as he was always called, was a pioneer of paediatric surgery in Sri Lanka. He was born in Kamburugamuwa, southern Sri Lanka, on 19 April 1929. His father was Wilson Karunaratne and his mother was Tilaka. He had two brothers and five sisters. His early sch

Huw Griffith was born on 21 November at Tredegar. His father was a headmaster and former president of the National Union of Teachers, and his mother, Myfanwy, née Bevan, a teacher and member of the London County Coucil was the sister of Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health from 1945 to 1950. From Lewis

Ian Irvine Wilson, the son of Leonard and Dorothy Garland Irvine, was born at Wellington, New Zealand, on 10 October 1920. After education at John McGlasher College he went to the University of Otago to graduate in dentistry at the age of twenty-one. After three years in dental practice he returned

Margaret Witt was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the North Middlesex Hospital, London. She was born on 14 June 1930 in Leyton, London, the oldest daughter of Henry Witt, a chauffeur, and Bertha, a lady’s companion until she married. Margaret won a state scholarship to Walthamstow Cou

Alan John Edwards was born on 25 July 1928 and educated at Drayton Manor School. He served in the Royal Air Force from 1946 to 1949 and after a year at Brunel College, London, entered Christ's College, Cambridge in 1951 as a scholar and took a first-class honours degree in the Natural Sciences Tripo

Patrick Kevin Coakley was born on 19 December 1928 at Bantry, County Cork, Eire. He attended Blackrock College, Dublin, and studied medicine at the University of Cork, qualifying in 1952. After the surgical rotation he passed the FRCS in Ireland. In 1955 he was appointed to a short service commiss

Brendan Devlin pioneered the use of surgical audit in the UK. He was born in Lancashire on 17 December 1932, the son of John Devlin OBE, a general practitioner from Leix in Ireland, who acted as the local orthopaedic surgeon during the war and was active in medical politics. His mother was Kathleen