William Edward John Bennett was a general surgeon in Powell River, British Columbia, Canada. He was born in Margate, Kent, on 12 February 1921, the second child and first son of William Robert Bennett, an inspector of taxes, and Elizabeth Mary Bennett née Knuckey, a civil servant and the daughter of

John Prince Hopewell, a consultant urological surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London, was a pioneer in the introduction of dialysis into the UK and the development of kidney transplantation. He was born on 1 December 1920, the fourth child and only son of Samuel Hopewell and Wilhelmina ('Daisy')