Edward Carew-Shaw was born in Lymm, Cheshire, on 28 March 1901, the son of Edward, a cotton broker, and Carolyne Hetty Newman, an actress. He received his schooling at Connaught School, Hove, and then Brighton Grammar School. He began evening classes at King's College, London, and then two years lat

William Alexander Duncan Drummond was born in Cape Town on 16 September 1901 where his father was then working for the Anglo-American Tobacco Company. The family later returned to England. Having initially studied engineering and lost two fingers of his left hand in an accident at the Liverpool ship