John Daniel Henry Bird was born in Longcot, Berkshire on 4 August 1908. His father, Daniel Henry, was a schoolmaster. He was educated at Ranelagh School, Bracknell, where he won a scholarship to King's College Hospital Medical School where he had a notable academic career. He gained a BSc in physiol

John Charles Leedham-Green was born in Birmingham on 30 October 1902, eldest son of Charles Albert Leedham-Green FRCS (1867-1931), sometime Professor of Surgery at Birmingham University, and his wife, Ethel, née Lees. He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read chemist