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,

Michael was born in Waimate, to Ronald, surgeon, general practitioner and Superintendent of the Waimate Hospital, and Mary Armstrong, a talented amateur artist. Both parents played the violin and from an early age Michael learned the piano and singing. He had a younger sister, Janet who would go on