Joseph Pett Turney was a consultant surgeon at West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, Cumbria. He was born in Hammersmith, London on 6 June 1918. His parents, Wilfrid Turney and Edith May Turney née Skinner, were both teachers. He had a brother, Wilfrid. Turney attended St Stephen’s Elementary School

Hugh Owen Jones was a general surgeon in Cardiff. He was born in Monmouth on 12 May 1918 and brought up in a school house in the tiny village of Goytre near Pontypool, where his father, William Lewis Jones, was a schoolmaster. His mother, Rebecca Jane Jones née Davies, was a nurse. The toilet for bo