Ashall was born in Addis Ababa in 1954 and received his medical education at St Mary's Hospital, whence he qualified in 1978. Dr Geoffrey Irvine, the medical superintendent at Chogoria Hospital in Kenya, where Ashall spent three months in 1973, inspired Ashall to turn to surgery after qualification;

Born at Dunedin, New Zealand, on 17 June 1882, he came of a distinguished family. His father Robert Gillies was a land agent and a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and his mother was Emily Street from Birtley, near Guildford. Edward Lear, the artist and nonsense-verse write, was h

Arthur Rainsford Mowlem was born in Auckland, New Zealand on 21 December 1902, the son of Arthur Manwell Mowlem, a stipendiary magistrate and Alice Marion (née Beecroft). He claimed descent from Durandas, one of William the Conqueror's knights who was granted 2½ hides of land in the Isle of Purbeck

Robert Clark Campbell (known as 'Bob') was a consultant plastic surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. He was born in Dundee on 31 January 1931, the only son of Archibald and Agnes Campbell. Following school in Dundee and then Southampton, he decided upon a career in medicine and he graduated

Sydney Bradley Williams qualified MB BS in Durham in 1956. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1960 and a Fellow of the College in 1962. He was appointed senior registrar in plastic surgery at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and held this post for

Born in Rugby on 27 May 1913, the son of Thomas Faulkner, a businessman, Faulkner was educated at Rugby School and Emmanuel College Cambridge, from which he went up to St Bartholomew's Hospital to do his clinical training. During the war he served in the RAMC, and on demobilisation returned to demon

Bruce Bailey was an innovative plastic surgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, on 29 February 1928, where his father, John Bailey, was national secretary of the Cooperative party. His mother was Anne née Glaser, the daughter of a tailor. He was educated at Bradford

James Emerson was born in Chesterfield in 1947, qualified at the Middlesex Hospital, where he did his house jobs, and, immediately he had registered, went to Colombia to work in an outlying district hospital. He always retained this interest in rural life in South America and a concern for the needs

Denis Bodenham was a pioneer plastic surgeon who learnt his basic skills in RAF hospitals during the war, and went on to apply his expertise in peace time surgery, making important contributions to the pathology and the management of malignant melanoma. He was born in Bristol on 20 October 1915, the

Michael Rodney Masser was born in Yorkshire on 23 April 1948 the son of Dr Alfred Masser MB, ChB, a medical officer of health and factory doctor and his wife, Joyce, née Silcove. His early education was at Penistone Grammar School, Sheffield, after which he entered Guy's Hospital Medical School, qua

Tom Gibson was born on 24 November 1915, the son of Thomas Gibson and his wife Mary, née Munn. He was educated at Paisley Grammar School and Glasgow University, whence he graduated MB ChB in 1938. Following junior house appointments at Glasgow Royal Infirmary he became assistant lecturer in surgery

Arthur Michael Wood, the second son of Arthur Henry Wood, CB, a civil servant in the Board of Education, and of Katherine Mary Altham Wood (née Cumberlege), was born at Guildford, Surrey, on 28 January, 1919. He was educated at Lambrook School, Berkshire, Ringwood School, Winchester College, the Éco