John Frank Herbert Stallman was born in Maida Vale, London, on 14 November 1889. He was the first child of John Henry Zacharia Stallman who was an importer and exporter of crude drugs and spices. He attended Dulwich College and then Guy's Hospital Medical School where he won the Michael Harris Prize

Arthur Chance was born in Dublin on 15 November 1889, the third son of Sir Arthur Chance, past President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1904 and 1905 and surgeon to the Marta Hospitals, and Martha, née Ronnaey. He was educated in Kildare and the Trinity College, Dublin. As a student