Born on 12 February 1876, son of William Leonard of Hull, he was educated at East Riding College, Hull and St Bartholomew's Hospital. After qualification he held an appointment as house surgeon at Huntingdon Hospital before entering the IMS in 1901. He served in the Tibet Expedition of 1903-04, and

Burton Alexander Nicol qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in May 1899, took the DPH at Cambridge in 1902, and the FRCS in 1903. He was a student at Guy's and Charing Cross Hospitals, and was house-physician at Charing Cross and resident medical officer to the Kensington Dispensary and honorary surg