Katharine Isabel Liebert was born in 1912 and was educated at the Manchester High School for Girls and Manchester University, where she obtained the degree of BSc in anatomy and physiology in 1934, and graduated MB ChB in 1937. She then held house appointments at the Royal Infirmary Manchester, St M

George John Sophian was born in Calcutta on 25 September 1894, the son of John Sophianopoulos, a jute merchant. George changed his surname to Sophian in 1921. His mother was the first female in the line of descent of Emin of Armenia (1546). He attended St Xavier's College, Calcutta, and then came to

Harold Hugh Gamlin Francis was a consultant obstetric and gynaecological surgeon at the United Liverpool Hospitals, and a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool Medical School. He studied medicine at Otago University, New Zealand, qualifying MB BS in 1944. He was a house surgeon at Wellin