Kenneth Gerald Rotter was born in Bexley, Kent, on 8 April 1912, the son of Dr Godfrey Rotter CB, CBE, GM, a research chemist and the Head of Woolwich Arsenal, and Gertrude, née Plank. He was educated at the City of London School and St Bartholomew's Hospital where he qualified MRCS LRCP in 1936 and

Peter Islwyn Hywel-Davies was born on 3 July 1914 at Abercynon, Glamorgan, and was educated at the Central School, Aberdare, and Cardiff University where he took the BSc degree in 1933. He then came to the Middlesex Hospital where he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1936, and took the London M