William Michael Mee was a consultant surgeon at Luton and Dunstable Hospital. He was born on 27 February 1928 and studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1954. He gained his FRCS in 1960. Prior to his appointment at Luton and Dunstable Hospital he was a senior surgica

William (‘Bill’) Murdoch Lennox was a general surgeon based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He was born on 19 January 1930 in West Derby, Lancashire. His father was William Murdoch Lennox III; his mother was Dorothy May Lennox née Smith. He studied medicine in London and qualified in 1954. He ga

John Wingate Maltby was a general practitioner and surgeon in Tiverton, Devon. He was born in London in 1928, the son of Henry Wingate Maltby, a doctor. He was educated at Trinity College School, Ontario, Canada, and Marlborough College, and went on to Cambridge University and St Bartholomew's Hospi

Gerald Holmes was a surgeon at hospitals in Nigeria, South Africa, the South Pacific and the Middle East. Born on 7 January 1931 in Rotherham, he was the son of John Holmes, a wholesale confectioner, and his wife Lucy née Roome who was a nurse. He was educated by the Jesuits at Mount St Mary’s Colle

John Robey Cobbett was a consultant plastic surgeon at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, and Lewisham Hospital. He was born on 5 May 1930, the third son of Claude Racster Cobbett, a company director, and Constance Evelyn Anne Cobbett née Robey. From the age of four, following the death of his

Peter Christie Anderson was an orthopaedic surgeon and a specialist in rehabilitation medicine in Perth, Western Australia. He was born in Sheffield on 23 September 1929, the eldest son of James Christie Anderson, a urological surgeon and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Mary Ann Ander

Jim Lawson was a consultant surgeon at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, Stoke-on-Trent. He was born in Birmingham on 28 October 1930. He was educated at King Edward’s School and qualified from Birmingham University Medical School in 1954, intercalating with a degree in physiology in 1952. He als

David Worthington Atkinson was a consultant urologist in the north east Thames region. He was born in Chinley, Derbyshire, the son of John Atkinson, an industrial chemist, businessman and former captain in the Army during the First World War, and Florence Mary Atkinson née Worrall. His sister, Anne

‘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

Leonard Norman Allen ('Len') was a urological surgeon at Edgware General Hospital, Middlesex. He was born in the village of Brede, Sussex, on 30 April 1929, the youngest son of Norman Williams Allen and Mildred Kathleen Allen née Hoad. His father, a much-respected member of the local community, was

Nigel Porter was a much-admired consultant general surgeon with wide surgical interests, working first in London, where he trained, and then in Sussex. He was born on 19 February 1925 in Ross-on-Wye, the son of George Harry Porter and Elma Blackhurst. He attended school in Ross-on-Wye, and then stud

Geoffrey Howe was dean of three dental schools – at the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery (RDH), in Hong Kong and latterly in Jordan. He was born on 24 April 1924 in the London borough of Haringey, the eldest of three brothers. His father, Leo Leslie John Howe, died when Geoff