Born on 25 October 1878 at Cambridge son of Edward Moore he matriculated in 1897 as a non-collegiate student, entered Christ's College in 1898 where he was elected a scholar on winning first-class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos part I, 1900, and won a scholarship to St Bartholomew's Hospital

Born on 18 March 1878 at Streatham Hill, London, the only son of John Taylor, wine merchant of Dean Street, Tooley Street, London Bridge and Alice Miller Gordon daughter of William Gordon, stockbroker of Union Street, Aberdeen; he and his sister were taken by their mother to Aberdeen when their fath