Vincent Briffa was a consultant ENT surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital. He was born in Malta, where he studied medicine. After qualifying in 1949, he came to the United Kingdom to study otorhinolaryngology. He was a clinical assistant at the Royal National Ear Nose and Throat Hospital in London, and ob

Ayman Al-Ghatta was born on 14 July 1947 at Najaf, Iraq, where he was educated at Najaf School before entering the University of Mosul, where he qualified MB ChB. Coming to Britain, he obtained his FRCS in 1978 and worked for a time at Perth Royal Infirmary. In his studies he was influenced by Mr

After qualifying from St James’s Hospital, Leeds, Ivor Fussey studied neurophysiology for nine years, gaining his PhD in 1972, during which time he devised platinum microelectrodes that could be implanted in the brain and used to locate vagal afferent impulses. After this experience he decided to sp

Zach Thomas was born in India and qualified from Vellore with a gold medal. After early medical posts in India and Tanzania, he went to England to train in surgery. After passing the FRCS, he emigrated to Canada in 1981 to do general practice in Regina, Saskatchewan. He was a founding member of the

Ali Bakran was a consultant and vascular surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital when he drowned while on holiday in the Maldives. He was born in Hyderabad on 15 January 1949 but his family moved to the UK and settled in Salford when he was a small boy. He attended primary school in Salfo

Born in India on 9 February 1947, Nirmal Khaitan qualified from Calcutta University in 1971, and came to England the following year. After junior appointments he became an associate specialist in orthopaedics at Shotley Bridge Hospital. In this capacity, Khaitan was noted for his meticulousness and

Samia Salem was born in Alexandria in 1948, where her father Hassan Salem was Professor of Tropical Medicine and her mother, Ehsan Naby, was an art teacher. She was educated at the Lycée Français in Alexandria, and then accompanied her father to Iraq in 1964 where she qualified from the University o

John Kelly was born in Ayr, Queensland, on 12 September 1943, the son of John Kelly, a general practitioner and superintendent of the Ayr District Hospital. He was educated at the Marist Brothers College in Ashgrove, Brisbane, and studied medicine at the University of Queensland. After junior post

Andrew Maclean was a consultant surgeon in Cumbria. He was born in Glasgow on 29 April 1918, the son of Andrew Bruce Maclean, a consultant radiologist, and Harriet Thomson, the daughter of a woollen manufacturer. From Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh he went to Glasgow University, where he won

Mohammod Younos was born in Pakistan on 11 November 1944 and after early education entered King Edward Medical College, Lahore, in 1962. He qualified six years later and after junior appointments in Pakistan came to England in 1969. He completed senior houses officer posts in ear, nose and throat su

Peter Curran was born on 22 May 1947 in Northampton, the fourth child of Peter Hyacinth Curran, a general practitioner in Northampton, and Alice Claire, née Kehoe. He was educated at Downside School and won an open exhibition to Brasenose College, Oxford, before entering the Middlesex Hospital Medic

Idris William Adams was born at Tonyrefail, South Wales on 14 June 1940 the son of Philip Darwin Adams, a schoolmaster and Fiona Mary, née Jenkins, a headmistress. He was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School where he was head boy in 1958 before entering Charing Cross Hospital Medical School which he