Arthur Clift was born in Chelmsford on 18 December 1903, the son of Arthur and Ada, née Humphries. He received part of his education at the grammar school before the family moved to Canada. He worked on prairie farms before entering Toronto University but returned to receive his medical training at

Ian Alexander McDonald was born in Perth, Western Australia, on 1 April 1922, the son of Neil McDonald, a Presbyterian Minister, who at one stage was Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Western Australia. His paternal grandfather had emigrated from the Western Isles, and his grandmother Munroe,