C S Patel was born on 13 October 1905 at rural Palana, went to school there, and afterwards at Baroda and Poona. His medical education was at the Grant Medical College and the JJ group of hospitals in Bombay. He had a brilliant career as a student obtaining 13 prizes, medals and scholarships; he qua

Alan Wordsworth Fawcett was born on the 18th October, 1896, the son of Edward Fawcett, Professor of Anatomy at Bristol University. He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol. He intended to study medicine, but his university career was interrupted by two years' service as Surgeon Sub-Lieutenant in

Frank Nicholson was a senior surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He was born in Cheshire on 6 September 1909, the son of Charles James Nicholson, a cotton merchant. Educated at St Bee's School, Cumbria, he had a distinguished academic record before proceeding to St Catherine's College, Cambridge,

Paul Santy, Professor of Clinical Surgery 1941-58 in the University of Lyon, Surgeon to the Edward Herriot Hospital 1933-58, and Director of the Lyon Anti-Cancer Centre, was a superb technical surgeon and an adventurous experimentalist of indefatigable curiosity, ever seeking advances for surgery th

Charles Edward Drew, eldest son of Edwin Frank Drew, an accountant, and of Eunice (née Lloyd-Davies) was born in Lambeth on 15 December 1916. He was educated at an elementary school in Stockwell and at Westminster City School and then secured an open scholarship in 1935 to King's College, London, an

Ralph Beverly Lynn, known as ‘Bev’, was born on 24 August 1921 in Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada. Having initially attended a local school, he moved to one in Midland, Ontario. He studied medicine at Queen’s University Medical School in Kingston, graduating top of his year in 1945. After house job

David Coston Sabiston was a distinguished American surgeon. As chairman of the department of surgery at Duke University School of Medicine, North Carolina, he was, reputedly, one of the greatest surgeons who ever lived. In 1962, he grafted a vein from a patient's leg to feed blood past a blocked cor

Emerich Polak received his medical training in Prague and qualified in 1925. He continued his surgical training under Professor Rudolf Jedlicka and his first contact with English surgery was in 1926 when the Moynihan Travelling Club visited Prague. For forty years he directed an important surgical d

Robert Janes was born the son of a farmer at Watford, Ontario on 6 September 1894, and never lost his love of the land and the beauties of nature. Shortly after graduating in medicine from the University of Toronto in 1916, he joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps and served in England and France t

Born in South Africa on 1 August 1918, youngest son of Hyman Brunow, merchant, and his wife, née Maister, he was educated at South African College School, Cape, and the University of Cape Town. After serving as house surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital, he went on active service with the South African

John Stephen MacMahon was born at Cootamundra, New South Wales. His father was a solicitor practising there, but he also had a country property where the animals, the horses especially, fascinated the boy. He was educated at St Patrick's College, Goulburn, and from the very outset had an outstanding

George Alexander Mason was born in 1901 and graduated from Newcastle-upon-Tyne University in 1922 and spent the whole of his professional life in that city. Although in every sense a general surgeon he soon became interested in thoracic surgery and devoted most of his surgical career to that special