Frank Radcliffe was born on 30 August 1908 at Oldham, Lancs. His father was a medical practitioner. He was educated at Oundle, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Hospital, graduating in medicine in 1932. After house appointments he was in partnership in general practice at K

John Beal was born in London on 27 April 1906. His father, Richard Edward Bruce Beal, OBE, MC, was a solicitor, and his mother, Winifred Morgan, was the daughter of John Hammond Morgan FRCS, formerly senior surgeon at Charing Cross and Great Ormond Street, and a member of council. He entered Harrow