Michael O'Riordan was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Croydon Eye Unit, Mayday Hospital. He was born in Markham, Gwent, on 14 August 1929, the son of Michel Joseph O'Riordan, a general practitioner, and Milwen Mary Lima O'Riordan née Jones, a teacher. He came from a medical background - his fath

Roderick McLeod was a general surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, and professor of surgery at the University of Queensland. He was born in Brisbane, Queensland, on 10 April 1933, the second child and first son of George Cooper McLeod, a wholesale and retail merchant, and Josephine Gert

John Ball was a true general surgeon, having spent his entire consultant career in practice on the isolated Scottish island of Skye, where he established a first-class surgical reputation, as well as becoming a much loved and hugely respected local figure. His reputation on the island was such that

Ken Hobbs was a professor of surgery at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and a pioneer in the field of liver surgery. He was born in London on 28 December 1936, the son of Thomas Edward Ernest Hobbs and Gladys May Hobbs née Neave. He moved as a child to south Norfolk and attended school in

John Miles was a professor of neurosurgery at the Walton Centre, Liverpool. He was born in Mountain Ash, a mining village in south Wales, on 30 May 1936, one of five children of Benjamin Miles and Helena Miles née Owen. His father, a miner and a socialist, was blacklisted by mine owners and unemploy

Alan McKinna was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. He was born on 13 August 1932 in Nottinghamshire, the youngest son of two GPs, Eva McKinna née Young and Henry Drummond McKinna. His father died suddenly at the age of 40, leaving his mother to bring up her sons while she c

John Hamilton Wyllie was professor of surgical studies at University College London (UCL). He was born in Dumfries, Scotland, the eldest son of Andrew McNae Wyllie and Marjorie Hamilton née Maxwell. On his father becoming physician superintendent of Royal Cornhill Mental Hospital, Aberdeen, John com

Asok Das Gupta was a kindly and much-respected ENT surgeon in Birmingham and Walsall. He was born into a highly-educated Hindu family in Daulatpur, Bengal; his father later became professor of mathematics at the University of Calcutta. As a consequence of the Partition of India in 1947, Asok and his

Anthony ('Tony') Barnes, a consultant surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, was in the vanguard of renal transplantation in the UK and made major contributions to the establishment of the specialty. He was born on 19 June 1934 in Brighton and as a teenager during the Second World War was

Gordon Andrew Hunter was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, the first and largest level one trauma centre in Canada, and professor in the department of surgery, University of Toronto. He was born on 25 May 1937 in London into a medical family. His father,

Richard John Earlam, who was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, played a crucial role in the introduction of the air ambulance service to London thus contributing to a huge drop in deaths from trauma in the capitol. Born in Liverpool on 26 March 1934 he was the son of Francis

Robert ‘Bob’ Jackson was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Southampton from 1971 until his retirement in 1995. Having developed an interest in paediatric and spinal orthopaedics, he set up the scoliosis and spinal deformities unit at Southampton, the first such specialist unit in the south outside