Charles Chubb was the son of a civil engineer and he was educated at St Paul's School and at University College London, where he graduated in 1901 with first-class honours in zoology, and was Jodrell gold medallist in comparative anatomy. Chubb served as a demonstrator and lecturer in the College's

Michael Vlasto, the only child of Greek parents, was born in Paris on 12 February 1888. His father was a civil engineer who had worked with Ferdinand de Lesseps, and his mother, Helen Zarifi, was the daughter of a banker in London. After education at a French lycée and at Winchester College he start