Myles Formby was born in South Australia on 13 March 1901, the son of a sheep farmer on a considerable scale and himself the son of a settler born in Formby, Lancashire. His mother, Elsie Landseer, was the daughter of a prominent South Australian parliamentarian. He was educated at St Peter's Colleg

Sir Geoffrey Bateman was a distinguished ENT surgeon at St Thomas's, London. He was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, on 24 October 1906, where his father, William Bateman, was a general practitioner. His mother was Ethel Jane Scrimgeour. His elder brother, Donald Bateman, wrote a biography of Lord Moyn