Robert Clarendon Percival was born at Richmond, New South Wales, Australia, on 16 September 1908, the fifth son and seventh of the eight children of William Percival, a farmer, and of Blanche Hilda Leontina, née Wikner, the daughter of a civil engineer. He was educated at Richmond Private Grammar Sc

Briant Evans was a former consultant obstetric and gynaecological surgeon at Westminster Hospital, Chelsea Hospital for Women and Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital. He was born in London in 1909, the eldest son of Arthur Evans, a surgeon at the Westminster Hospital. He was educated at Westminster