Keren Parkes was born on 18 December 1904 in Dulwich, the only daughter of Alexander Parkes, an accountant. She was educated at Streatham College for Girls, Somerville House, St Leonards-on-Sea and went on to King's College and King's College Hospital. At the age of twelve she decided that she wante

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

David Michael Stern was born in Burton-on-Trent on 22 October 1903. His father was Arthur Landauer Stern, a chemist and brewer, his mother, Grace Madelein née Falck. He was educated at first at the Burton Grammar School, and then went with his younger brother to Clifton College, from which he won an

John Ormerod Harrison qualified in medicine from Cambridge University in 1932 and became a Fellow of the College in the same year. He trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital where he was house surgeon and orthopaedic house surgeon. He then became senior house surgeon at Leicester Royal Infirmary before