Reginald Eric Norrish was born on 15 April 1900. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1927 at St Bartholomew's Hospital after a previous qualification in pharmacy and was a demonstrator in the anatomy department. He passed the FRCS in 1929 and joined the staff of the Royal Northern Hospital and

Born in 1895 at Glasgow, he was educated at Grosvenor School, Carlisle and apprenticed to a chemist there. He served in the Black Watch through the war of 1914-18 and then began his medical training at King's College Hospital, where he served as house surgeon and surgical registrar after qualifying