Brews was the son of a general practitioner, Richard Vincent Brews, LRCSI, and his wife Edith Manifold; he was born in North Woolwich in 1902. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and became a medical student at the London Hospital in 1920. After gaining many prizes he qualified in 1924,

Gladys Helen Dodds was born in Kirkcaldy in 1898 and educated at Dunfermline High School. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1922 she held the posts of house surgeon at the Royal Maternity and Simpson Memorial Hospital and at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh. She wen