Alexander Galbraith Cross was born in London on 29 March 1908, the son of Walter Galbraith, a bank manager, and his wife Mary Stewart, née McKeich, a farmer's daughter. He was educated at King's College School, Caius College Cambridge, and St Mary's Hospital, where he was a University Scholar and

Richard Sampson (Dick) Handley was born in London on 2 May 1909, the eldest son of William Sampson Handley and Muriel Rigby, the daughter of the Reverend Clayton Rigby. Dick's father was on the surgical staff of the Middlesex Hospital, a member of both the Council and Court of Examiners of the Colle