Betty Underhill was born on 22 December 1908, the only child of William Wood and Elizabeth Roberts, both head teachers. She was educated at North London Collegiate School and Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a first class honours degree in zoology. She remained at Oxford doing research i

Paul Seargeant was the only child of an automobile engineer, Thomas William Seargeant, and May Lilian née Sanders. He was born in Bristol on 25 February 1924. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Bristol University, where he won gold medals in medicine and surgery, and the Royal Hospital go