Born at Shooter's Hill, Blackheath, SE, on 24 July 1877, the second son and second child of Colonel Joseph Sladen, RA, JP and DL for Kent and the Cinque Ports, and his wife Lady Sarah Lambart, daughter of the eighth Earl of Cavan. He was educated privately, at Ripple Court near Dover, and at the Lon

Born on 29 August 1878, William Edwin Haigh studied medicine at University College, London and St Bartholomew's Hospital, and qualified in 1909. Haigh was Assistant Demonstrator in Anatomy at University College, London, and later held appointments at the General Infirmary and the Hospital for Women