Derek Ryder was born in New Plymouth in 1914. He was educated at Auckland Grammar School and Rotorua High School where he was dux and had a distinguished athletic record. He trained at Otago University, qualifying MB ChB in 1938. As an undergraduate he played rugby for four years with distinction. H

Selwyn Kerry Burcher came from a long-established Auckland family. He attended Remuera Primary School and Auckland Grammar School where he was head boy and captain of the school's first fifteen in rugby football for three years. He graduated MB, ChB from Otago University in 1941, undertook his house