Mike Solan was born in Eltham, London, on 31 January 1932. His father, Michael, was a Bank of England official and his mother was Doris Winifred Gladys Rogers, a Librarian. He was educated at Douai Abbey School, Berkshire, and at Woolwich Polytechnic and he attended St Thomas's Hospital Medical Scho

Alan John Edwards was born on 25 July 1928 and educated at Drayton Manor School. He served in the Royal Air Force from 1946 to 1949 and after a year at Brunel College, London, entered Christ's College, Cambridge in 1951 as a scholar and took a first-class honours degree in the Natural Sciences Tripo