George MacDonald Fraser, OBE, novelist and screenwriter, was born on April 2, 1925. He died on January 2, aged 82

Fraser left journalism at the age of 44 to create the fictional world of Harry Flashman, the cultish, caddish antihero of his period novels. Flashman arrived at the end of the Swinging Sixties, a time when the public rejected heroes. Part of the delight of the stories was the shameless way that Fraser ignored the political correctness of his age. Before mastering the comic novel, he served in Burma in the Second World War. In spite of declining health in his later years, he continued to write, leaving behind a dozen Flashman books.

Dr Pramod Karan Sethi, orthopaedic surgeon, was born on November 28, 1927. He died on January 6, aged 80

Sethi, a surgeon unqualified in orthopaedics, changed the lives of millions of below-the-knee amputees with the Jaipur Foot, a cheap and easily made prosthesis that he co-designed with Ram Chandra, a semi-literate craftsman. The foot can be made anywhere in less than an hour using everyday tools and small amounts of rubber, wood and aluminium. It has improved the lives of landmine victims across the world, especially in Cambodia and Afghanistan, who could never have afforded a traditional prosthesis. The foot has never been patented — Sethi insisted that he had no interest in becoming wealthy — and is produced in more than 25 countries, most of them poor. In 1981 Sethi won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the “Asian Nobel”.

Sir John Harvey-Jones, former chairman of ICI and industrial troubleshooter, was born on April 16, 1924. He died on January 9, aged 83

Harvey-Jones was one the great industrial leaders of his generation. In 1980 Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) reported losses of £16 million. But soon after Harvey-Jones was made chairman in 1982, Britain’s largest company became the first British company to announce pre-tax profits in excess of £1 billion. Harvey-Jones limited bureaucracy, paring away layers of management, and proved Margaret Thatcher’s point that industry could flourish in Britain. After ICI, he starred in the BBC television series Troubleshooter, in which he dispensed no-nonsense advice to struggling companies. Before coming to business, he served in the Navy and rose to lieutenant-commander. He was appointed MBE in 1952.

Sir Edmund Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE, mountaineer and author, was born on July 20, 1919. He died on January 11, aged 88

Of all the achievements that seemed to make the year 1953 such an annus mirabilis for Britain — the Coronation, the regaining of the Ashes after 20 years and the wresting of the world air-speed record from the Americans — none seized the public imagination as vividly as the first ascent of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Hillary’s life was full of adventure, yet he remained seemingly untouched by fame. He helped to develop Everest for his Sherpa guides, constructing schools, hospitals, an airfield and a bridge. He published many books on his adventures.

Bobby Fischer, chess champion, was born on March 9, 1943. He died on January 17, aged 64

Fischer, the brash chess genius from Brooklyn who toppled the Soviet domination of chess before his 30th birthday, is the only North American world champion and was the only non- Soviet or non-Russian title-holder between the Second World War and the victory of Viswanathan Anand in October 2007. Fischer took the world championship from Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972, a symbolic moment for America in the Cold War. Soon after, he renounced chess and did not play another competitive game for 20 years until a “return match” with Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992. A deeply disturbed man, Fischer lived a peripatetic existence, surfacing occasionally to spew anti-Semitic, anti-American statements. The US authorities revoked his passport and attempted to have him extradited. Iceland offered him residency out of fond memories of 1972.

Heath Ledger, actor, was born on April 4, 1979. He died of an accidental overdose on January 22, aged 28

The Australian Ledger’s pin-up looks belied his ability to inhabit dark, complex characters. In a Hollywood career that lasted less than a decade, he built an impressive list of credits. He took challenging roles in controversial movies, winning an Oscar nomination for his performance as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain (2005). Other notable performances included his incarnation of Bob Dylan in I’m Not There (2007), the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008) and roles in The Patriot (2000), Monster’s Ball (2001) and The Brothers Grimm (2005).