Francis Finlaison was born on 1 January 1906 and educated at Charterhouse, Clare College, Cambridge and St Thomas's Hospital. After qualification in 1930 he held several resident posts at St Thomas's Hospital and then became chief assistant to the obstetrical department at the same hospital. Finl

Born 16 March 1899 the only son of Martin William Reddington, a civil servant. He was educated at the University of Otago, Dunedin, where he graduated in 1922, and came to England for postgraduate work at the Middlesex and Guy's Hospitals, with the intention of specializing in gynaecological surgery