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

Allen James Whitaker, the fifth son of Dr James Smith Whitaker who was formerly a family doctor in Great Yarmouth, was born in Hendon on 16 April 1905. His father, having been the first medical secretary of the British Medical Association, became senior medical officer at the Ministry of Health on i

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