Arthur Chance was born in Dublin on 15 November 1889, the third son of Sir Arthur Chance, past President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1904 and 1905 and surgeon to the Marta Hospitals, and Martha, née Ronnaey. He was educated in Kildare and the Trinity College, Dublin. As a student

Born at Godalming on 8 November 1889, the elder son of the Rev William Francis Romanis, Preacher of the Charterhouse, and Annie Ellen Cowie, he was educated at Charterhouse where he was a scholar and became head of the school. Going up to Trinity College, Cambridge as a mathematical scholar he obtai