Robert Pope Melville was a consultant general and breast surgeon in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was born at Wollongong, New South Wales on 23 May 1913. One of five children, his father, Hector Pope Melville, a school principal and advocate for education, encouraged his sons and daughters

Wallace Black was born at 14 Park View Road, Finchley on 12 September 1917; his father, James Black was a company director and his mother was Jane Duckworth, whose father was an electrical engineer. Black was educated at Finchley County School and at King's College London, and Westminster Hospital M

Frank Cockett was internationally known for his ground-breaking advances in the understanding of varicose veins and venous ulcers. He identified a new condition called the 'ankle blow out syndrome' and described the operation needed to cure it, which became universally known as 'the Cockett operatio

Nicholas Ernest James was born on 20 August 1912 in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of the Congregational Minister. The family returned to England in 1928 and he completed his schooling at Latymer Upper School and then went to the London Hospital where he graduated with honours in medicine in 193

Peter Islwyn Hywel-Davies was born on 3 July 1914 at Abercynon, Glamorgan, and was educated at the Central School, Aberdare, and Cardiff University where he took the BSc degree in 1933. He then came to the Middlesex Hospital where he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1936, and took the London M

Hugh Owen Jones was a general surgeon in Cardiff. He was born in Monmouth on 12 May 1918 and brought up in a school house in the tiny village of Goytre near Pontypool, where his father, William Lewis Jones, was a schoolmaster. His mother, Rebecca Jane Jones née Davies, was a nurse. The toilet for bo

Group Captain William Harries was a surgeon in the RAF. Born in Brawdy, Pembrokeshire on 17 October 1921, he was the oldest child of Ernest Henry Lloyd Harries, a farmer, and his wife Priscilla Winifred née Griffiths. He was educated at Treffgarne Owen Council School and Haverfordwest Grammar School

Richard E Shaw was one of the first full-time urologists in the UK and one of the first to set up a urological department in a district general hospital, Walsgrave General Hospital, Coventry. He was born in Ravensthorpe, Yorkshire, the third of four siblings. His father, Edward Shaw, was a corn mill

Laurence Edgar Davison was born in London on 4 April 1907, the son of Edgar Knights, a master tailor, and Katherine, née Davison. His early education was at Cheltonia College and later at Dulwich College before entering Middlesex Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1931. During house appointments

George Reginald Crawshaw was born on 9 July 1916. He studied medicine at Manchester University and qualified MB ChB in 1939. He was OC No 2 (Brit) Mobile Neurosurgical Unit of the RAMC and then became a civilian medical practitioner with the Military Hospital, Colchester. After gaining his FRCS i

John Francis Neil Ward-McQuaid, the son of Colonel John FTP Ward-McQuaid and his wife Enid Ecila, née Cheshire, was born on 30 December 1918 at Neston, Cheshire. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, where he won several prizes and was a notable cricketer. As the son of a serving army o

Bernard Price was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on 27 January 1913, and studied medicine at Cambridge University and King's College Hospital, where he qualified in 1938. During the second world war he served in the RAMC and was awarded the MBE. On demobilisation he resumed his surgical training at the