Born on 8 April 1897 in Melbourne son of Charles Robert Rogers and Janet Chant, he was educated in Melbourne until 1915, when at the age of 18 he joined the Australian Naval Transport Service in which he served until 1917. He then came to the Middlesex Hospital to resume his interrupted medical stud

Trained at the North Middlesex Hospital during 1930-32 as a general surgeon, he also practised neurosurgery and cardiac surgery. He became a frequent visitor to European and Russian clinics, attending surgical conferences, and was one of the early visitors to Moscow, when brain operations were carri