Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows

Born at Edgbaston, Birmingham on 29 October 1845, the son of Brooke Smith. His father belonged to an old Unitarian family and the son was named after Joseph Priestley, the preacher and discoverer of oxygen, who was driven to the United States when the Birmingham mob burnt his house. Brooke Smith was

Born on 22 July 1875 the only child of Ernest Wirgman and Mary Williams his wife, he was educated at Harrow and University College Hospital, where he served as ophthalmic house surgeon. He was clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, and practised throughout his career

Gerard William Crock was professor of ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Perth in 1929 and was educated with his twin brother Henry (known as Harry) at St Louis Jesuit School in Perth. Both brothers went on to study dentistry at the University of Western Australi

Andrew Elkington was a consultant ophthalmologist in Southampton and one of the founders of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. He was born on 12 December 1935 in Newport, Shropshire, into a medical family; his ancestors had been doctors since the eighteenth century. His father, George Ernest Elk

The son of a Birmingham physician, served an apprenticeship, then studied at the Birmingham General Hospital and at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He began practice as a general surgeon, was Surgeon to the King's Norton Union near Birmingham, to the General Dispensary, the Birmingham Orthopedic Hospital

Michael Hugh Melville (Hugh) Ryan AM spent 65 years as an ophthalmologist, retiring only eight months before he died. His life was led with great intellectual integrity, a thirst for knowledge and a compassion for people. He graduated Dux of the Medical Course at Melbourne University in 1937 and

Howard Reed was an ophthalmologist in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was born in London on 28 April 1914, the son of Morris William Reed, a chartered secretary, and Emmeline Louise Reed. He attended West Ham Secondary School and first qualified as an optometrist. He then decided to become a doctor a

Derrick Tilton Vail was born in Cincinnati on 15 May 1898, and did his medical course at Harvard University, graduating MD in 1923. He then spent a year as ophthalmic intern at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and in 1926 he became instructor in ophthalmology at the University of Cincinnati C

Ian Alexander Mackie was an associate specialist in the external eye diseases clinic at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, and at St George's Hospital. He studied medicine at Aberdeen, qualifying in 1954, and held house posts in the city, at Woodend General Hospital and the Royal Infirmary. He gained

Andrew McKie Reid was born on 14 April 1893 and educated at Liverpool University. In 1914 he interrupted his undergraduate career to be commissioned in the King's Liverpool Regiment, and was awarded the Military Cross in 1916 when serving on the Somme with the Machine Gun Corps. In 1918 he was wound

Born at Tranmere, Cheshire, on 25 February 1865, the eldest son and second of the four children of Richard Sherwood, barrister and deemster of the Isle of Man, who assumed the name of Herbert in 1876. He was educated at Liverpool and at the Leeds Medical School, and took the English Conjoint qualifi

Ian William Payne was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal Eye Infirmary in Plymouth. He was born in Bedford on 15 June 1923, the only child of Benjamin William Payne, an engineer who had served with the Royal Engineers during the First World War, and Ann Payne née Simpson. During his early chi