Gerald Huxham Pearce was born in Stonehouse, Plymouth, on 15 May 1906, the son of Albert Preston Pearce, a bank manager, and Jessie Annie Ridge, of Holsworthy, North Devon. He was educated at Sidcot School, a Quaker school, in Somerset and then University College Hospital, where he was greatly influ

Sir John Croot was born on 14 October, 1907, in Portsmouth, the son of Horace Croot, LDS, RCS, a dental surgeon in Southsea, and Emily Winifred, née Daw. He was educated at Eastman's School, Southsea, and then at Haileybury College, Hertford, from 1921 to 1925, where he was a senior scholar. He trai