Cyril Charles Cookson was born in Walsall, Staffordshire, on 14 November 1906. His father, Charles William, was a treasurer at the Blue Coat School in Walsall and King Edward's Grammar School, Aston, Birmingham. He married Miss Bull in 1937. He studied at Birmingham Medical School passing MB ChB

Norman Ernest Pitt was born in Worthing on 25 November 1904, the son of Thomas William Pitt, an army officer, and his wife, Naomi. He was educated at Brighton Grammar School and studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School where he obtained an honours BSc in physiology before qualifying in 1928

Narasinganallore S Narasimhan was born on 20 April 1893 in the province of Madras, and although he decided early he wanted to be a doctor he could not afford a university course so took the subassistant surgeon's course at the Prince of Wales Medical School, gaining its licence in 1913. During the f