Ronald Ludlow Benison was born on 22 November 1908. He was educated at Cambridge University and St Bartholemew's Hospital, London where he qualified in 1934. In due course he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Wolverhampton Group of Hospitals. Ronald Benison had a distinguished academic record

Samuel Marshall Thompson was born in Leeds in 1909, the son of Walter Thompson FRCS (1886-1924), see *Lives of the Fellows*, vol.2, p.409, consultant surgeon to Leeds General Infirmary. His mother was one of the early graduates from the London School of Medicine for Women. He was educated at Uppingh