Colonel Noel Peters was a military surgeon, general surgeon and later consultant oncologist at the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, Woolwich. He was born in Hong Kong on 20 December 1931 to Rose Margaret Peters née Shea and William Henry Peters. He was the youngest child and only son with three el

Driving through an English snowstorm, on the way to board a ship and emigrate, Val Lishman’s mind was on fresh horizons. An Australian summer beckoned for him, wife Jean and three children. Six weeks later glaring reality hit. “We had read all about the beautiful Wildflower State but …everything see

Michael Du Preez (he did not use ‘Hercules’) was born in Cape Town on 19 November 1935, the son of Hercules James Du Preez, a company director, and his wife Josephine Florence née Koll. Educated at Rondebosch Boy’s School from 1944 to 1952, he proceeded to study medicine at the University of Cape To

Nicholas Chandos Bland was a consultant ENT surgeon in Birmingham. He was born in Birmingham in 1932. His mother was Alice Harvey, Birmingham born and bred. He stayed in the city to study medicine, qualifying in 1956, and gaining his diploma in child health in 1959. After qualifying, he was resid

Ivor Alwyne Sewell studied medicine at King's College Hospital, qualifying MB BS in 1955. A lecturer in surgery at Westminster Hospital Medical School at the start of his career, he then became senior registrar in surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. He was awarded a PhD for research into the microci

John Thomas Hobbs was a renowned vascular surgeon, researcher and educator. He was born on 18 January 1931 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, to John Leonard Hobbs and Winifred Maud Hobbs née Haynes. He qualified in 1954 at St Bartholomew’s Medical School, London, and spent the next three years as

Graeme Douglas Campbell was born in Eltham, Taranaki, the youngest of five children of dairy farmer Jack Campbell and schoolteacher, Winifred May Heather. Entering a sports-mad family (particularly rugby, tennis and swimming), he grew up on the family farm. After attending Eltham Primary School, Gr

Stuart Craig Lennox was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at the Brompton Hospital, London. He was born on 25 May 1932 in Aberdeen, the son of James Craig Lennox and Agnes Lennox née Hadden. He was educated at Robert Gordon College in Aberdeen and then, from the age of 14, when he moved to London,

Iain Gillespie was a professor of surgery at Manchester University and an honorary consultant surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Manchester, at the centre of the Industrial Revolution, and the location of one of the ‘redbrick universities’, was characterised by the championing of Nonconformist v

Philip Starr, known as ‘Jimmie’, was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born in Birmingham in 1933. After qualifying, he spent four years in Canada and then in Australia, studying ophthalmology at the Sydney Eye Hospital. He subsequently returned to England, w

In many countries, less than 30 years ago it was possible to become a senior ophthalmologist, even a professor, without ever having passed a postgraduate examination in the specialty. Peter Watson, a consultant ophthalmologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and Moorfields in London, changed a

Ved Sachdev was born in Mitranwali, India, on 22 February 1932. His father, Gridhari Lal Sachdev, was a headmaster, and his mother, Amar Rawla, a housewife. During the riots that followed the partition of India he lost his eldest sister, and his family was obliged to flee to Amritsar, where he was e