George Syme carried on the tradition of his father, Sir George Syme, as surgeon to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia. Born on 20 April 1902 in Melbourne, the only son, he was educated at Trinity and Melbourne Grammar Schools, then at Melbourne University where he obtained first class honours i

D'Arcy was a third generation Australian, born at Greendale, Ballan, Victoria, where his grandfather Thomas D'Arcy came from Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland and settled in 1848. His father Patrick was Thomas's second son and his mother was a Macgillicuddy, a member of the chief clan in the same part of