Denys Sambrook did his medical studies at St Thomas's Hospital where he qualified in 1938. After junior posts in orthopaedics he decided to train as a radiotherapist and for a time worked as a consultant in radiation oncology at St John Regional Hospital, New Brunswick, Canada. After being appointed

John Fitton was born in Darlington on 6 August 1915. His father, John Hall Fitton, was a bank manager in the West Riding of Yorkshire and his mother Joanna, née Fowler, was of Scottish descent. He was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, and studied medicine at the University of Leeds Medical