Reginald Theobald Payne was born at Northampton on 15 March 1896. When he was aged 65 he published a remarkable book *The watershed* in which he gave a vivid picture of his childhood and schooldays. He was the eldest of four brothers, and as his father, who had a furniture business in the town, brou

Born on 18 August 1902, the son of F M H Eckhoff, a Norwegian architect, he was educated in South Africa at Durban High School, Natal University and the University of Cape Town, and at Guy's Hospital, where he arrived in 1920 with a senior science scholarship. At Guy's he qualified with the Conjoint