Thomas Boyd was born in Glasgow on 7 June 1918, the son of Harold Arthur Boyd and his wife Edith, née Somerville. He was educated at Glasgow Academy. His father was chairman and director of the family engineering business, J & T Boyd Ltd., and Thomas went through an engineering apprenticeship from 1

Saw Leong was born in Burma on 19 October 1918 in Mudon, where his father, U Saw Ohn Pe, was a landowner and his mother, Daw Tan Ma Chan, a businesswoman. His uncle, Tan Chan Taik, was an ophthalmologist in Rangoon. His sisters, Ma Thwe Ohn Pe and Thein Thein Myint, became GPs in Moulmein and Streat