Henry Edwin Hobbs was born in London on 4 February 1910, the son of Henry Hobbs, an officer in the Salvation Army. His early education was at Grade schools in Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver in Canada before returning to England where he attended Tottenham Boys' Junior Technical School. His full-tim

Edith Whetnall was born at Hull in 1910, and trained at King's College Hospital where she graduated in 1938, taking the Conjoint Diploma in 1939, the Fellowship in 1940, and the London MS degree in 1944. She became interested in ear surgery while working at the branches of King's College Hospital at