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Christiaan Neethling Barnard was born on November 8, 1922 in the little town of Beaufort West, South
Africa. His father, Adam Barnard, was a church pastor and his mother Maria played the church organ. Chris was one of five
boys. One of his brothers, Abraham, died at the age of five from a heart disease. This could have attributed to
Chris's future walk in life. Well, many years later, Chris's younger brother Marius would be appointed as his right-hand man
in the Departement of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Cape Town.
He graduated from the Beaufort West High School in 1940 and in 1946 completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of
Surgery (MB, ChB) at the University of Cape Town. His family were by no means rich and young Chris Barnard had to
walk five miles to University each day. He was not an outstanding student, but most definitely worked hard.
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He returned to Cape Town in 1951 and worked at the City Hospital as the Senior Resident Medical Officer and
the Registrar, Department of Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital. He continued to study in the evenings and
received the degree, Master of Medicine (MMed) from the University of Cape Town in 1953. In the same year he got his MD degree
from the same university for a dissertation entitled "The treatment of tuberulous Meningitis". After receiving these degrees,
he was given a promotion to that of Registrar (resident) in the Department of Surgery, under Professor J. Erasmus, at Groote
Schuur Hospital, in Cape Town. In 1956 he received a Charles Adams Memorial Scholarship and a Dazian Foundation Bursary for
a two year study in the United States of America...next page
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