Born on 18 March 1928 in Christchurch, Averill was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, at Canterbury University College and then at the Otago Medical School. He spent two years as house surgeon to Palmerston North Hospital and then came to Britain to study ophthalmology at Moorfields, obtain

John Norton Taylor was an Australian ophthalmologist who contributed to improvements in the treatment of oculomotor nerve palsy. He was born in Adelaide, Australia, and was a direct descendant of Eliza Sturt, the sister of Captain Charles Sturt, a prominent Australian explorer in the early 19th cent