Alfred Hobson was educated at George Dixon's School, Edgbaston, and later at Birmingham University, graduating from there in 1925. After the usual house appointments he took the Fellowships of England and Edinburgh in 1928. A few years later he was appointed general surgeon to Battersea General Hosp

Illtyd James was born in Barry, Glamorgan, on 12 July 1900, the eldest son of Evan Thomas James, a master tailor, and Elizabeth Jones, a farmer's daughter. He was educated at Barry County School, where he held a county scholarship, and later at University College Cardiff (where he took a BSc in 1921