Born on 18 March 1928 in Christchurch, Averill was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, at Canterbury University College and then at the Otago Medical School. He spent two years as house surgeon to Palmerston North Hospital and then came to Britain to study ophthalmology at Moorfields, obtain

Brian Harcourt was born on 3 March 1934, the son of John Ellison Harcourt, a scientific instrument manufacturer in Liverpool and Bertha Florence Kneen. His grandfather, Richard Eugene Harcourt FRCS (1858-1921), was an ophthalmic surgeon, also in Liverpool. Harcourt was educated at Quarry Bank High S