Born at Pilkington, Lancashire on 10 May 1856, the third child and second son of James Briggs, he was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, at Owens College, Manchester, and at Edinburgh University. There he learnt anatomy from Sir William Turner, and was senior medallist; and surgery from List

Born at Enfield Highway on 21 April 1855, eldest son and second of the nine children of Charles William Sutton, who had a farm where he fattened stock, killed it and sold it in Formosa Street, Maida Hill. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Wadsworth, a Northamptonshire farmer. Bland-Sutton