Frank William Law was born in Isleworth, London, on 14 August 1898, the third son of Thomas Law, a drapery warehouseman, and his wife Emma, née MacRae. He was educated at St Paul's School and St John's College, Cambridge, proceeding to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical studies where he graduat

Frederick Ridley was born in Birmingham, where his father was a schoolteacher. Having graduated BSc at Birmingham in 1922 he took the MB, BS in 1925 and the FRCS in 1928. As a young man he worked with Fleming on lysozyme, and his basic work on purification helped in the subsequent development of pen

Jean Margeurite Dollar was born in London in 1901. Her father, grandfather and uncle were veterinary surgeons practising in Bond Street. After school in London she attended the London School of Medicine for Women, from which she graduated MB BS in 1927. She early devoted herself to ophthalmology and

The Hon Geoffrey John Orlando Bridgeman, the second son of the first Viscount Bridgeman, was born on 3 July 1898 at 39 Harley Street, London. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge, and served in the Royal Field Artillery during the first world war, and was awarded the MC in 1918. He

Hyla Bristow Stallard, always known as Henry to his many friends, was born in Leeds on 28 April 1901. He went to a preparatory school in Cheltenham and then to Sherborne where in addition to success at his work he also began to show the athletic prowess which so distinguished his later career at Cam