Mohamed Alyan was born at Aswan, Egypt on 16 September 1922; his father Yassin Alyan, was a business man and his mother's name was Baheya El-Kadi. Alyan received his medical education in Cairo University graduating in 1947. He held resident appointments in Cairo and became a surgical registrar in 19

Ellery Arthur Mulvihill Ryan was born in 1917 in Melbourne, the son of a leading ophthalmologist who exerted a great influence on his son's character and interest in sport of many kinds. He went to school as a boarder at Xavier College from the age of six till he was eighteen and left with the prize