Martin Wright Kidman Bird was born at 2 Warkworth Street, Cambridge on 30 September 1889, the second child and eldest son of William Kidman Bird, a merchant, and Maria Rebecca Martin, his wife. He was educated at the Perse School, Cambridge and at Tettanhall College. He graduated in arts from Emmanu

Born at Middlesbrough, he won a scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, took first-class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos, part I, 1911, and won the Shuter scholarship at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He qualified just after war broke out in 1914, and served for four years as a surgeon in the