James Gore was born in South Shields, County Durham, on 17 May 1903, the younger son of James Gore, a civil servant in HM customs and excise, and Eliza née Morton. Both his parents hailed from Belfast; his mother from a medical family. Her brother was William Blair Morton, Professor of Physics at Qu

James Cosbie Ross was born in Liverpool on 17 May 1904. He was the son and grandson of doctors, his father being James Ross, a general practitioner in Walton, Liverpool. His mother was Delia Cosbie and James, as the eldest child, took the name of Cosbie. James used this name and linked Ross as 'Cobb