George Denis Elphick was senior resident and chief clinical assistant at Moorfields Eye Hospital, house surgeon to the eye department at St George's Hospital and consultant ophthalmologist to the Leicester Royal Infirmary. His last post was as consultant ophthalmologist to the Ministry of Pensions.

Norman Thompson Holden studied medicine at Cambridge University, the Westminster Hospital and Guy's. He was senior registrar to the traumatic and orthopaedic unit at Ashford Hospital, Middlesex, and orthopaedic registrar to Guy's. He was then appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Enfield G

Charles John Gordon was born on 24 June 1910, in Angmering, Sussex. He came of a long line of clerical forbears, several of whom were bishops in Lincoln. His father was the Reverend George Gordon, who was Vicar of Angmering. His mother, Eileen Hutton, came of an army family. He was the only son and

Francis Masina was born in Bombay on 1 February 1909, the son of Hormasji Manekji Masina, FRCS, a famous surgeon in India and the first Parsee to obtain the English FRCS. Francis was the second of four children, all of whom graduated from Cambridge University and obtained English medical qualific

Edmund O'Donnell Colley Grattan, the son of Colley Edmund George Grattan, a barrister, was born on 2 February 1910 at Bournemouth. His mother Winifred Katharine Wyndham Barnard was the daughter of Sir Herbert Barnard, a banker, whilst his father's side of the family was descended from Henry Grattan,

Peter Willoughby Ingram was born in Muswell Hill, London, on 30 August 1910, the son of a general practitioner surgeon. His early education was at Highgate School and his pre-clinical studies were at Cambridge University. He graduated BA in 1931 and went to Aberdeen for his clinical studies, qualify

John Douglas Fergusson was born on 5 December 1909 at Great Malvern, Worcestershire, the son of John Newberry Fraser Fergusson, FRCS Edinburgh, radiologist at York County Hospital. He was educated at St Peter's School, York, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he was college prizeman and scholar