John Armstrong was born on 20 March 1911 in Monmouth, where his father, Arthur Keith Armstrong, was a general practitioner; his great-grandfather John Armstrong was a member of the College and his mother was Louise Lilly Macman, the daughter of a solicitor. He was educated at Highgate School and

Samuel Hirsch Janikoun was joint professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal Army Medical College. He was born in the East End of London on 12 March 1913 into a Jewish family. He won a scholarship to Hackney Downs Grammar School and from there went on to University College Lo

John David was born on 12 July 1912 in Rugby. He was the first son of the Rev Albert Augustus David, DD, who was headmaster of Rugby School and later Bishop of Liverpool, and of Edith Mary Miles whose father had been a civil engineer in Jaipur, India. John was educated at Rugby School and graduated