Kenneth Leslie James was born on 15 July 1906 in Burton-on-Trent, the son of Joseph Henry James, MA, LIB, BD, who had given up the law to become a Methodist Minister, and his wife Minnie, née Longley. His early education was at the Burnley Grammar School but due to the peripatetic nature of his f

Vernon Thompson ('VCT') was born at Tutshill, Tidenham, Gloucestershire on 17 September 1905, his father, Cecil Charles Brandon Thompson, being a general practitioner and his mother, Dorothy Christian, née Ford, the daughter of a solicitor. He went to Seafield School, Bexhill-on-Sea, and then on to