Major General Anil Krishna Barat was head of the department of surgery at the Armed Forces Medical College, Poona. He was born in Krishnanagar, West Bengal, on 1 February 1915. His father, Sadananda Barat, was an administrator in the railway service; his mother was Anupama, the daughter of a lawyer.

Barry Shandling was born in South Africa on 20 February 1928 and graduated in medicine from the University of Cape Town in 1950. While he was in training he was inspired by the surgeons Christian Barnard and Jannie Louw. On travelling to the UK he did house jobs at the Hospital for Sick Children, Gr

Robert Thorlakson was a leading Winnipeg surgeon. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the son of Paul Henrik Thorbjorn Thorlakson, a physician and chancellor of the University of Winnipeg, and his wife Gladys. Robert and his twin brother Ken were raised and educated in Winnipeg. Thorlakson served dur

Agnes Bartels was a general surgeon in the RAF. In later life she became a sister of the Society of Sacred Heart. She was born in 1920 and grew up in Sydenham, then a suburb of London. After graduating she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and served in the Second World War as a radar techni

David Moffat was professor of anatomy at Cardiff University. He was born in Swansea on 3 October 1921. His father, William Burns Moffat, was a master tailor; his mother, Christine Alice Moffat née Williams, was a housewife. Moffat attended Swansea Grammar School and began studying medicine at St Bar

David Simpson Cole was dean of the Auckland School of Medicine for fifteen years. Born in Waihi on 25 October 1923, he was the son of James McMurray Cole, a general surgeon, and his wife Doris Elizabeth Cole, née Alcock. His mother passed the conjoint examination of the college while at the Royal Fr

Sankar Panikkar was born in Manchester in 1924 and educated at Manchester Grammar School and the University of Manchester, qualifying in 1948. After house appointments he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps with a National Service Commission in 1949 and served as medical officer in the Parachute Reg

Frank Groves Ellis was a renal transplant and vascular surgeon at Guy's Hospital. He was born on 12 September 1925 into a long-standing farming family. After grammar school, he entered Guy's medical school in 1943, qualifying in 1949. He was an anatomy demonstrator in 1952. He gained a consultant p

Neville James Way was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia. He was born on 16 March 1924 in Boulder, Western Australia, the son of Inman Way, a general practitioner in Boulder and Kalgoorlie. He was educated at Eastern Goldfields High School, concentrating more

Ian William Payne was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal Eye Infirmary in Plymouth. He was born in Bedford on 15 June 1923, the only child of Benjamin William Payne, an engineer who had served with the Royal Engineers during the First World War, and Ann Payne née Simpson. During his early chi

James Arnault James was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Kidderminster. He was born on 9 June 1917 in Gwynfe, a thriving farming community in rural Carmarthenshire, Wales. Both his parents, James and Florence (née Jones) were schoolteachers, and had moved to Gwynfe when they married. John and his

Jim Mortensen was a urological surgeon in Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Yarrawonga, Victoria, Australia, on 15 May 1926, the only child of Henry Newman Mortensen and Lorna née Bray, who were both general practitioners. His father went to England in the early 1930s to specialise in surgery and