Jack Burke will be remembered for successfully developing the first commercially reproducible, synthetic human skin. He was born on 22 July 1922 in Chicago, where he grew up. He started studying engineering at the University of Illinois, but left after Pearl Harbor and joined the Army. At the end of

Joseph Murray had an illustrious career as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, but his unique achievement was to perform the first successful kidney transplant, on identical twins, in 1954, for which he was awarded a Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1990. He was born in Milford, Massach

Air Vice-Marshal George Henry Morley was born at Portsmouth on 22 February 1907. He went to the Middlesex Hospital Medical School where he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1929. After house appointments he joined the RAF medical service in 1934 and took the FRCS the following year. In 1940

Emlyn Lewis was born in America on 10 April 1910; his mother brought him at an early age to Wales and he was educated at Monmouth. He later entered St Mary's Hospital and qualified from there in 1929. After obtaining his Fellowship he held appointments of surgical registrar at King's College Hosp

Richard Dawson was born in 1916 and educated at the Bishop's Stortford College and University College Hospital, qualifying with the conjoint diploma in 1939. He joined the RAMC, although the formality of service life during the war was not very compatible with Dick's debonair and easy manner. He dec

Frank Leo Hutter was born in Auckland on 6 February 1910 and after early education at Auckland Grammar School entered the University of Otago Medical School, qualifying in 1935. He spent a year in house appointments at Palmerston North Hospital before coming to England for further postgraduate appoi

David Francis Cort was born on 19 March 1935 in Hull, where his father was a bank manager. David was a bright student and gained a Staffordshire County scholarship which took him to Denstone College at Uttoxeter. From here he was awarded an open exhibition in natural sciences to Gonville and Caius C

Fenton Braithwaite was born on July 28 1908, the third of four sons of Abraham Braithwaite, farmer, of Marton in the Fylde, Lancashire, and of his wife Ann. He attended Baines Grammar School before entering Manchester University to read for an honours degree in mathematics. He then proceeded to rese

Anthony D'Arcy Pelly qualified MB BS in Sydney in 1954. He passed the College Fellowship in 1957 and worked as senior registrar in the plastic surgery, burns and oral surgery centre at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, London. He became honorary plastic surgeon to the Balmain and District Hospital

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

Percy Jayes, an internationally known and respected plastic surgeon, was born on 26 June 1915, the first son of Thomas Harris Jayes, a butcher and farmer. His mother, Jessie May, was a daughter of a master mariner. He had one younger brother. Educated at Quernmore School, Bromley, and Merchant Taylo

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