Professor Jacques Caspar Henricus Van der Meulen was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who was head of the academic department of plastic surgery in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. When he was awarded the honorary fellowship of the college in 1993 it was noted that he was one of the foremost academi

Dermot O'Flynn was a consultant surgeon in the urology department at the Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary, Dublin. He was born on 21 January 1920 and studied medicine at Cork, qualifying in 1942. After house jobs in Mansfield and Lincoln, he joined the RAMC, which took him to West Afric

Sir Gerard Vaughan was a former Minister of State for Health in the Thatcher government. He was born on 11 June 1923 in Mozambique, Portugese East Africa, the son of a Welsh sugar planter who was more interested in big game hunting than sugar and was later killed in the RAF. Gerry was educated by a

Sir James Black was a distinguished pharmacologist who developed not only beta-blockers but also cimetidine, which transformed the management of peptic ulcer. He was born on 14 June 1924, in Uddingston, Strathclyde, the fourth of five sons of a mining engineer from whom he inherited a love of music

Sir James Black was a leading physiologist and pharmacologist whose development of drugs to block beta receptors in the heart and histamine receptors in the gastro-intestinal tract led to a revolution in the treatment of patients with heart disease and ulcers. He was awarded a Nobel prize for his wo

Leader Stirling was an eminent missionary surgeon and a former minister for health in Tanzania. He was born on 19 January 1906 in Essex. Many of the family were doctors, although a cousin did found the SAS – the Special Air Service. Stirling was educated at Bishop’s Stortford and then went on to the

As regional medical officer for Oxford Regional Health Authority Rosemary Rue pioneered part-time specialist medical training for women doctors. She was born in Essex on 14 June 1928, the daughter of Harry and Daisy Laurence. The family moved to London when she was five, and during the Blitz she was

Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick was elected as the first female president of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1989, 471 years after its foundation – one of her many remarkable achievements. At one stage in her career she was the only female professor of medicine in the UK. She is recognised