John Beal was born in London on 27 April 1906. His father, Richard Edward Bruce Beal, OBE, MC, was a solicitor, and his mother, Winifred Morgan, was the daughter of John Hammond Morgan FRCS, formerly senior surgeon at Charing Cross and Great Ormond Street, and a member of council. He entered Harrow

Herbert Frank McNickle was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 23 August 1907. His father, William McNickle, was the local postmaster. He attended Auckland Grammar School from 1920 to 1924 and the University of Otago Medical School, where he won a gold medal in anatomy, from 1925 to 1930. He becam

Robert Wallace (Bob) Nevin was born in Burton-on-Trent in 1907, the son of a general practitioner. He was educated at Clifton College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He joined St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1929 and had a distinguished undergraduate career, winning the Cheselden and Clutton