John Douglas Fergusson was born on 5 December 1909 at Great Malvern, Worcestershire, the son of John Newberry Fraser Fergusson, FRCS Edinburgh, radiologist at York County Hospital. He was educated at St Peter's School, York, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he was college prizeman and scholar

Francis Masina was born in Bombay on 1 February 1909, the son of Hormasji Manekji Masina, FRCS, a famous surgeon in India and the first Parsee to obtain the English FRCS. Francis was the second of four children, all of whom graduated from Cambridge University and obtained English medical qualific