John Graeme Boulton Myles was an orthopaedic surgeon on Jersey. He studied medicine at Cambridge University and St Thomas’s Hospital, qualifying MB BChir in 1950. After house jobs in the orthopaedic and plastic surgery departments at St Thomas’s, he became a surgical registrar at St Peter’s Hospital

Thomas Linthorn Bradbeer was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. He was born on 8 January 1925 in the west country, the son of a dentist. He was educated at Dartington Hall, Devon and went on to study medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London

Eric Newton was a consultant neurosurgeon at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary. He was born in Surrey in 1919, but was educated in northern India. He gained an Indian Army scholarship to study medicine at Madras Medical School and qualified in 1942, during the Second World War. He immediately beca

Anthony George Ackerley was a consultant pathologist in Leicester. Born in Wolstanton, Staffordshire on 3 February 1925, he was the only child of George Ackerley, a schoolmaster and his wife Ethel née Edge. She was the daughter of Andrew Edge, a shoemaker who was to become Burgess of the Borough of

Basil Morson was a consultant pathologist at St Mark’s Hospital, London and a pioneer of gastrointestinal pathology. He was born in Hampstead, London, one of three sons. His father, Albert Clifford Morson, was a urologist; his mother was Adela Frances Maud Morson née Phene. Through his father, he wa

David Hugh Nixseaman was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon in Ayrshire and Galloway. He was born in Norwich, Norfolk on 16 December 1924. His father, Alfred Jonathan Seaman, was a chaplain to HM Forces in India; his mother was Edith Minna Seaman née Nix-James, a teacher and the daughter of an engraver

Major general Norman Kirby was a military surgeon and director of clinical services, accidents and emergencies, at Guy’s Hospital, London. *On wings of healing* (Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood & Sons) by Howard Cole is the definitive account of the airborne medical services from their beginnin

John Griffiths was one of the leading cancer surgeons of his day, a consultant surgeon at both St Bartholomew's and the Royal Marsden. Born in Llanelli, Wales, on 31 March 1926, he was the younger brother of Evan Griffiths (see above q.v.), and the son of the town's main grocer, Edgar Griffiths, and

John Harris was a well-known anatomist who became professor at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine: he was appointed to the chair on the retirement of Ruth Bowden. It is possible that he had contemplated a career in obstetrics and gynaecology in his early years and was very much a clinical an

Gerald Keen was a cardiothoracic surgeon at Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Frenchay Hospital from 1964 until 1991. His most enduring achievements were the introduction of cardiopulmonary bypass to Bristol in 1965 and the enlargement of the facilities for open-h