Background
Basil Leslie Laver was born 18 December 1894 at Witfoot, Middelburg, Transvaal, South Africa, the third of the three sons of Henry Laver, merchant of Middelburg.
Basil Leslie Laver was born 18 December 1894 at Witfoot, Middelburg, Transvaal, South Africa, the third of the three sons of Henry Laver, merchant of Middelburg.
Laver"s obituary in the British Medical Journal commented on his "dynamic energy and capacity for work, his acute inquisitiveness of mind, and his absolute intolerance of shibboleths of medicine". Laver’s parents came originally from Southampton and he received his formal education at Bedford Modern School and medical education at Guy"s Hospital. During World War I he received a commission on 27 February 1915 as second-lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, and was subsequently adjutant and temporary major.
Laver then settled at Northampton, where he was elected assistant surgeon to the General Hospital on 22 February 1927, becoming surgeon on 28 April 1931.
He was also consulting surgeon to the Stamford and Rutland General Infirmary. Laver died in Northampton on 28 December 1934 and his ashes were buried at Southampton.