John Simon Lekias was born at Northam, Western Australia, on 15 March 1921. His father Sios Lekias, a businessman, had emigrated to Australia from the island of Kastellorizo, near Rhodes. His mother, Despina Marcou, was a refugee of the Russian revolution who came from the Greek colony in Odessa and

William Lindsay Elrick, the son of William Elrick, a public servant, and of Margaret Mary May (née Lindsay), was born on 20 February 1927, in Melbourne, Australia. After early education at Coburn Primary School and University High School, Melbourne, he entered the University of Melbourne, and gradua

David Robertson was born in August 1916 in Auckland, a son of Sir Carrick Robertson. He was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School where he represented the school in rugby, rowing and swimming. He studied medicine first at Dunedin and then at Melbourne, where he won an anatomy scholarship under Prof