Robert Alexander Bremner was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at York County Hospital and then York City General Hospital. He was born in Alloa, Scotland, the son of two schoolteachers. He attended Alloa Academy and then the University of Edinburgh, where he qualified in medicine in 1947.

Alfred Beck was a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon in Cardiff. He was born in Uhersky Brod, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), on 28 January 1912. His father, Ignaz, was a wholesale merchant and councillor, from a prominent family in the Jewish community which included rabbis and business