Brian Sterry Ashby was born in Northampton on 28 August 1930, the son of Roland Sterry Ashby, an estate agent and auctioneer. His mother, Marion Elizabeth née Phillips, was a company director whose father and two brothers were all dental surgeons. He attended Waynefleet House primary school in Brack

‘You can teach a monkey to operate, but you can’t teach a monkey when not to operate.’ Many, especially on the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies’ training courses, will remember John Garfield’s pithy one-liners. That was the epitome of John – serious, but everything had to be fun and w

John Moore was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon in the Chelmsford Hospital Group and to the Regional Orthopaedic Centre, Black Notley, from 1967 to 1994 and, on retirement, an honorary consultant to the Mid-Essex NHS Trust. Born on 10 October 1929, he went to preparatory school in Lytham

Peter Rycroft was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on 11 October 1928, the elder son of Sir Benjamin Rycroft and his wife, Mary, née Rhodes. He went to school at St Piran's on the Hill, Maidenhead, and at Stowe, and from there proceeded to his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He continue