Born at Kadina, South Australia on 16 August 1903, eldest child and only son of Herbert Richard Letcher MB ChB Melbourne, who was in general practice at Adelaide from 1896 to 1940, and his wife née Sands, he was educated at St Peter's College, the University, and the Royal Hospital at Adelaide, qual

Trained at the North Middlesex Hospital during 1930-32 as a general surgeon, he also practised neurosurgery and cardiac surgery. He became a frequent visitor to European and Russian clinics, attending surgical conferences, and was one of the early visitors to Moscow, when brain operations were carri