Frank Nicholson was a senior surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He was born in Cheshire on 6 September 1909, the son of Charles James Nicholson, a cotton merchant. Educated at St Bee's School, Cumbria, he had a distinguished academic record before proceeding to St Catherine's College, Cambridge,

Kenneth Buxton was a former medical officer for the Church Missionary Society at Ruanda Mission, Ibuye, Burundi, and subsequently medical superintendent of Mildmay Mission Hospital, Bethnal Green, London. He was born in Hertfordshire, on 19 July 1909. His father, Leonard Buxton, was the grandson of