Born at Cullercoats, Northumberland, on 7 December 1905, eldest child and only son of Ernest Hindhaugh, seedsman, and his wife Hermione Amelia Hodgson. He was educated at Tynemouth, at Haileybury, and at Durham University, and took his clinical training at the London Hospital, at University College

Norman Ernest Pitt was born in Worthing on 25 November 1904, the son of Thomas William Pitt, an army officer, and his wife, Naomi. He was educated at Brighton Grammar School and studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School where he obtained an honours BSc in physiology before qualifying in 1928

Clive Butler was born in Flaxton, near York, on 8 April 1904, the only son of William Barber Butler and Edith Eastmond, a nursing sister. They had both trained at the London Hospital and had helped to care for the Elephant Man after he had been rescued by Sir Frederick Treves. His father subsequentl