Cecil Arthur Horder was born on 23 August 1896, the son of a medical missionary in China who was distinguished by the award of the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for his work on leprosy. Cecil was educated at Weymouth College, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge; and a

Arthur Reginald Lister was born in Totteridge, north of London, on 4 April 1895 into a distinguished medical family. Lord Lister was his great-uncle, his father, Sir William Lister, and his cousin, Arthur Lister, were well-known eye surgeons, and one of his brothers was a consultant physician at Ply