Herbert Bernhard Eckstein was born in Dusseldorf, Germany, on 11 July 1926. His father Albert Eckstein was Professor of Paediatrics in Dusseldorf, Hamburg and then in Ankara (Turkey) where his family settled in the early 1930's. His mother, Erna, was the daughter of Professor A Schlossmann, Professo

Irene Irving was a senior lecturer in paediatric surgery at the University of Liverpool and a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital (Alder Hey) who managed to combine her career with bringing up three children on her own after the early death of her husband.