Ranjit Basu was born on 15 August 1926 and studied for his MB BS at Grant Medical College in Bombay. He became a Fellow of the College in 1957 and came to England to live in Liverpool. He became surgical registrar at Alder Hey Children's Hospital and then senior registrar at the Liverpool Thoraci

Norman Winstone was a consultant surgeon at Selly Oak, Birmingham. He was born in Gidea Park, Essex, on 8 February 1924, the son of Herbert Charles Winstone, a property manager, and Kate née Robinson, a policeman's daughter. He was educated at Gidea Park College and Romford Royal Liberty School, bef