Eoin O’Malley was a cardiac surgeon and a past president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was born on 5 April 1919 in Galway, where his father was professor of surgery. From Clongowes Wood College he went to medical school, at first in Galway and later at University College, Dublin, w

Wilfred Gordon ‘Bill’ Bigelow, who helped develop the first electronic pacemaker, was a professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Toronto and a pioneering heart surgeon. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1913. His father, Wilfred Bigelow, had founded the first medical clinic in Canada. Bi

James Keith Ross was a leading cardiac surgeon, and one of the team that performed the first cardiac transplant in Britain. He was born in London on 9 May 1927. His father, Sir James Paterson Ross, was later to become professor of surgery at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Surgeon to the Royal Household

Saulat Jahan was professor of surgery at the Fatima Jinnah Medical College for Women and a consultant surgeon at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, where she was known for her care of the sick, poor and destitute. She was born and raised in Delhi and gained her MB BS degree from Lady Hard

Denis Melrose played a crucial role in designing and developing the first heart-lung machine. He was born in Cape Town on 20 June 1921, the son of Thomas Robert Gray Melrose, a surgeon, and Floray Collings. The family went to England before the Second World War, and Denis was educated at Sedbergh an

Hugh Bentall was professor of cardiac surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, and a pioneer in the development of surgery using the heart-lung machine. He was born in Worthing, Sussex, on 28 April 1920, the son of Henry Bentall and Lilian Alice Bentall née Greeno. He was educated a

Robert de Vernejoul was a prominent French cardiac surgeon. He was born on 19 March 1890 at Montcaret in the Dordogne. His father was a pastor. He came from a noble family, originally from the village of Vernajoul near Foix. His ancestors can be traced back to 16th century. He was educated at the Ly

Born 30 July 1888, the second of the five sons of George Chalmers Cutler, lumber manufacturer and merchant, and Mary Carr Wilson, his wife. He was educated at Volkmann Preparatory School, at Brookline Public School, Massachusetts, and at Harvard, where he graduated in arts 1909, and in medicine 1913

Graham Venn was a consultant cardiac surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and, for the last decade of his life, at the centre of British cardiac surgery. He was part of all aspects of the discipline, from being passionate about training junior surgeons, to overseeing cardiac surgical

James Lawrence 'Jim' Monro was a cardiac surgeon at Southampton General Hospital, where he successfully developed the service for infants and children. Jim's medical lineage could hardly have been stronger. He was born in Singapore on 17 November 1939, at the start of the Second World War, the son o

Frank Harland Mills was a pioneering Australian heart surgeon. He was born on 20 June 1910 in Armidale, New South Wales, and grew up on the south coast of the state, mostly around Ulladulla. Frank's mother died when he was young, and his father, a local magistrate, had to raise Frank, his brother Ro

Eoin Aberdeen was born in Melbourne in 1924 and qualified in medicine there in 1948. Before coming to England in 1955 he was a medical and surgical registrar at the Royal Children's Hospital and a flying doctor in North-West Australia. After a spell in the burns unit at Birmingham he became surgical