Born on March 22 at Kew Park, Bethel Town, Westmoreland, Jamaica, he was the third son of James Rowland Williams, the family having been in Jamaica for many generations. The family was a distinguished one, an elder sister being Dr Cicely Williams CMG, who first detected and described kwashiorkor in

Arthur John Gardham, the second son of Arthur and Elizabeth Gardham (née Phelps), was born at Leytonstone, Essex on 4 November 1899. He was educated at Bancroft's School, University College and University College Hospital, London, but his studies were interrupted by the first world war when his fath

John Bertram Gilchrist Muir was born on 18 July 1899 at Kai Yuan, Manchuria, where his father, who had qualified in Edinburgh, was a medical missionary. He was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, Eltham College in London and the Middlesex Hospital. His medical training was interrupted by

John Taylor Blackburn was born in Leeds on 3 July 1898 the son of Harry Blackburn, a headmaster, and Edith (née Brandlein). He attended Leeds Grammar School and later entered Leeds University with a scholarship. At the end of the first world war he served as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Ar