Keshav Devdatta Shastri was a general surgeon at Mid Ulster Hospital, Magherafelt, Northern Ireland. He studied medicine at Grant Medical College, Bombay, India, gaining his MB BS in 1946 and his FRCS in 1953. Prior to his appointment in Northern Ireland he was head of the department of surgery at t

Peter Blaxland was very much a family man, with a warm and welcoming manner and an appreciation of the simple pleasures of life. These characteristics concealed a considerable intellectual ability, and gave no hint of his understanding of the problems of surgery, and his gifts, both innate and culti

Birinchi Prasad Samanta was born on 23 February 1924, the son of Chander Mahal Samanta, a lawyer. He was educated at the Calcutta School where he won the first prize for the highest aggregate marks in the sciences. At Calcutta University in 1941 he was awarded highest marks in the BSc. He passed MB

Frederick Samuel Gorrill was born on 30 July 1913 at Okehampton, Devon, the son of a village constable. He was educated at Torquay Grammar School and King's College, London, where he obtained an honours BSc in chemistry in 1934. He became involved in research in biochemistry, and was later appointed