Hal Morton was born on 18 August 1905 in Port Greville, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Charles S Morton, a physician in Halifax, and Marie née Stafford. He was educated at St Andrews College, Toronto, and then Dalhousie University, where he became a member of the Phi Rho Sigma Fraternity of Canada.

Firoz Dara Mistry was a general and vascular surgeon in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He was born in Bombay, India on 29 October 1938, the son of Tehmi and Dara Mistry and studied medicine at the G S Medical College in Bombay. He gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in