Gerald Huxham Pearce was born in Stonehouse, Plymouth, on 15 May 1906, the son of Albert Preston Pearce, a bank manager, and Jessie Annie Ridge, of Holsworthy, North Devon. He was educated at Sidcot School, a Quaker school, in Somerset and then University College Hospital, where he was greatly influ

Geoffrey Cashell, born in 1906, was educated at Westminster School, London, before starting his medical training at King's College Hospital, where he qualified LMSSA and MRCS LRCP in 1930. 1933 was an eventful year: he passed the MB BS London and the FRCS Edinburgh and was appointed honorary consult