Francis William Shepherd, who was born in Nottingham on 6 December 1906, grew up in Castletown, Isle of Man. With a London BSc he studied medicine at Cambridge and St Bartholomew's Hospital. After holding posts in Hampstead and Ilford he was appointed RSO at Huddersfield in 1938 and, it is said, ser

Arthur George Leigh was born on 22 March 1909 in Liverpool, the son of John McWhan Leigh. He was educated at Liverpool Collegiate School and Liverpool University Medical School. He qualified in 1933 and was appointed house surgeon and house physician at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He then underto

David Waldron Smithers was born on 17 January 1908 in Knockholt, Kent, the home of his father Sir Waldron Smithers JP, stockbroker and staunchly Conservative MP, and of his grandfather Sir Alfred Smithers MP, chairman of the Canadian Grand Trunk Railway. A knighthood was clearly an obligatory achiev