Francis Sansome Mitchell-Heggs, the fourth child and third son of Francis Raymond Mitchell Heggs, a medical practitioner, and of Maud (née Sansome) whose father had been surgeon to West Bromwich Hospital, was born at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, on 16 August 1911. After education at Nottingham High Schoo

John Reginald St George Stead was born in Grahamstown, South Africa, on 20 June 1908. His father was William Yewdall Stead, a missionary priest, and his mother, Miriam Peterson, was the daughter of an architect. He was the sixth child in the family and the third boy. He was educated at St Andrew's P