Ronald Maxwell Rawle was born in Greenham, a small village near the border between Dorset and Somerset, in 1907. When he was six his parents emigrated to Australia, taking him and his two brothers. They settled first in Canberra and then moved to Blackheath. He attended Blackheath Public School, Syd

Stanley Livingstone Spencer was born on 1 November 1907 in Sydney, New South Wales, the son of Thomas Walter Spencer, a journalist, and his wife Alice Maude, née Kelly. He was educated at North Sydney Boys' High School and Sydney University, where he qualified MB BS in 1930, winning the Chapman Priz