Peter Milling was senior surgeon at the Royal Ear Hospital, Huntley Street, then part of University College, London, and a hidden treasure of ENT wisdom. He was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad on 1 April 1916, the elder son of Frederick William Milling, a Yorkshireman, who, after gaining a degree in

Gerard Erwin Stein was born in Kanth, Silesia, Germany, on 25 February 1916, the son of Adolf Stein, a clothing manufacturer and retailer, and his wife Frieda, née Masur. He was educated at a local primary school and later at a grammar school in Breslau up to the age of 18. His parents, devout Jews,

Lionel Robert Stewart Taylor was born on 4 November 1915 at Szechuan, West China, where his father was a missionary. He was educated at Monkton Combe School, Bath, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and St Thomas's Hospital where he qualified with the Conjoint Board Diploma and the MB ChB Cantab in 1940.