Samuel Hirsch Janikoun was joint professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal Army Medical College. He was born in the East End of London on 12 March 1913 into a Jewish family. He won a scholarship to Hackney Downs Grammar School and from there went on to University College Lo

John Armstrong was born on 20 March 1911 in Monmouth, where his father, Arthur Keith Armstrong, was a general practitioner; his great-grandfather John Armstrong was a member of the College and his mother was Louise Lilly Macman, the daughter of a solicitor. He was educated at Highgate School and