Noel James Bonnin was born on Christmas Day 1909 in Adelaide. He was the son of Winifred, née Turpin, and James Atkinson Bonnin who had become a Fellow of the College in 1898 and was a Foundation Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons in 1927. His older brother, Lansell, was an orthopaed

James Firth Heslop was born in South Shields and studied medicine at Manchester University, where he graduated with honours in 1933. As a house surgeon he came under the influence of John Morley and took the FRCS in 1936, becoming in turn registrar to the surgical outpatients department, resident ca