John McNamara was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 29 October 1912, a son of Mathew, an accountant, and Alice (née Gunning). His brother Matthew, also a doctor, died in 1942 while a prisoner of war of the Japanese. John was educated at the Jesuit Colleges of St Patrick and Xavier and at St Vincent's

Group Captain Malcolm Westmoreland Sleight was a distinguished urologist in the Royal Air Force and was the Royal College of Surgeons' Cade Professor of Surgery to the RAF. He died suddenly on 27 March 1981 at the age of 48. Born on 7 July 1932 in Leeds, the second son of a civil engineer (Chief