Richard Harrington Franklin, or 'Dick' as he was always known, was born in London on 3 April 1906, the son of Major P C Franklin. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1930 and proceeded to a house post at St Thomas's, taking the Fellows

Sir John Croot was born on 14 October, 1907, in Portsmouth, the son of Horace Croot, LDS, RCS, a dental surgeon in Southsea, and Emily Winifred, née Daw. He was educated at Eastman's School, Southsea, and then at Haileybury College, Hertford, from 1921 to 1925, where he was a senior scholar. He trai

Hal Morton was born on 18 August 1905 in Port Greville, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Charles S Morton, a physician in Halifax, and Marie née Stafford. He was educated at St Andrews College, Toronto, and then Dalhousie University, where he became a member of the Phi Rho Sigma Fraternity of Canada.