Dennis Walder, professor of surgical science at the University of Newcastle, was a leading researcher in the field of decompression sickness ('the bends') and hyperbaric medicine. Surgery as a specialty has always been encompassed by wide boundaries, but Dennis' research must surely rank as a topic

Dame Cicely Saunders established St Christopher's Hospice in London, which became the model for hundreds of other hospices. She was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on 22 June 1918, the daughter of Gordon Saunders, a domineering estate agent, and Mary Christian Wright. She was educated at Roedean and

Andrew Raffle, former chief medical officer of London Transport Executive, was an expert on medical standards for driving. He was born on 3 September 1918 in Newcastle upon Tyne, where his father, Andrew Banks Raffle, a barrister and a doctor, was medical officer for health for South Shields (he was

Born on June 21st, 1852, the son of the Rev Lewis P and Anne Mercier, of French Huguenot descent. On the death of his father, the Mercier family were left in such straitened circumstances that after a few months' education at the Merchant Taylors' School in 1862, Mercier went as a cabin-boy on a voy

Born at Caerphilly on December 6th, 1821, the son of a medical man who had an extensive country practice, which he conducted on horseback; he was proud of his stable, and his son had the advantage of an active outdoor life in his boyhood and after his apprenticeship to his father. William Edwards (1

Hugh Baron was a consultant physician-gastroenterologist at St Mary's and Hammersmith hospitals, London. Of all his qualities, the foremost was his love of scholarship. He hungered for knowledge in all his many areas of interest, and from his research and ideas he added to most of them. He described

Frances Violet Gardner, the youngest of three daughters and the fourth child of Sir Eric, farmer and Conservative MP for East Berkshire, and Lady Gardner, was born on 28 February 1913. She was educated at Headington School, Oxford, Westfield College, London, and the Royal Free Hospital Medical Schoo

Born at Evercreech, Somerset on 13 April 1867 son of Cuthbert Lockyer a yeoman farmer, he was educated at King's School, Bruton, where he was for a few years a schoolmaster. Deciding to take up medicine, he went to Charing Cross Hospital and for postgraduate study to Bonn and Vienna. Having achie

Francis Avery Jones was a distinguished consultant physician and gastroenterologist at Central Middlesex and St Mark's Hospitals. He was born in Beccles, Suffolk, on 31 May 1910, the son of Francis Samuel and Marion Rosa. He was educated locally at the St John Leman School, before proceeding to St B

Born on 18 December 1859 at Campton, near Haddington, East Lothian, he was brought up under a strictly religious discipline with his brothers and sisters by his grandmother until her death. He was educated by a typical Scots dominie at the school in Haddington from which he proceeded to Edinburgh Ac

Charles Ernest Lakin was born in 1878, the son of a general practitioner who became the Mayor of Leicester. He was educated at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School where he was a First Entrance Scholar, and won Broderip and Freeman Scholarships, and qualified in 1901 with the Conjoint Diploma, and

Born on 2 March 1871 at Huyton, he was educated at Liverpool University and University College Hospital graduating in 1893, after which he held house appointments at Liverpool Royal Infirmary. Later he became a demonstrator of anatomy and surgical tutor. He settled in Harrogate in 1894 and commen