Robert Gerrett Reid, the son of the Rev Dr James Reid, DD, a Presbyterian Minister and well-known preacher, and of Isa Reid (née Gerrett), a school mistress, was born at Oban, Scotland, on 21 September 1909. He was educated at Roborough School, Eastbourne, the Leys School, Cambridge, and Guy's Hospi

Kenneth Hester was a GP in Hertfordshire, an honorary surgeon at the St Albans and Mid-Herts Hospital, and assisted at Red House Hospital (now Memorial Hospital) in Harpenden. He was born on 27 October 1908 in Catford, London, the only son of William Clement, a schoolmaster, and Ellen Carter née Smi