Eric Sidney ('Sid') Watkins, professor of neurosurgery at the London Hospital Medical School, transformed safety standards in Formula One motor racing. He was born in Liverpool on 6 September 1928, and won scholarships to Prescot Grammar School and then Liverpool University, where he read medicine.

Edward Hitchcock ('Ted') was born in Wales at Rhymney, Monmouthshire, on 10 February 1929, the son of Edwin Robert Hitchcock and Martha Mary, née Roberts. The family soon moved to Staffordshire, where his father worked as a coal miner. Ted soon discovered Cannock Chase, which was to provide a steady

Peter Rack was born in Grimsby of Quaker stock on 27 October 1928. His father, Ralph Skinner Rack, was a chemical engineer, and his mother Elsie, née Horsman, was a marine biologist. His early education was at Society of Friends Schools in Wigton, Ackworth and Bootham between 1936 and 1946, followin