Richard Orgias was born at Palmerston North, New Zealand, and went to the Palmerston North Boys' High School and then to Otago University where he graduated with the MB degree in 1934. For his post-graduate training Orgias came to London and worked at St Thomas's and University College Hospitals,

Valentine Andrew James Swain was a paediatric surgeon in London's East End. He was born on 21 February 1910, a twin, in Ilford, Essex, into a family with a strong medical tradition. His father, James Steel Swain, and grandfather were both doctors. His mother was Mary Blanche née MacMunn. He went fro