John Connell Park was born on 4 May 1933 in Newtownards, County Down, the son of Samuel Park, a general practitioner, and Edith Helen Connell, a schoolteacher. He was educated at Repton and Queen's University, Belfast. He did his junior appointments at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, and then

Pundalika Shenoi was born on 28 September 1933 in Mangalore, Southern India, into a family of numerous medical men, although his father, Gopal Krishna Shenoi, was a merchant. His early education was in the University of Madras and Andrha Medical College, where he gained the MB degree with three gold