Charles Brown was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon in Bristol. He was born in Aberdeen on 10 July 1915 into a medical family - his father, John Brown, and uncle were both general practitioners, both his sisters married doctors, one sister and a daughter became nurses, and his son-in-law was professor

Robert Jack was born on 6 October 1914 in Darjeeling, India. His father, Sir Robert Jack, was a High Court Judge in Calcutta and his mother was Bertha Innerarity, née Shalcross. His boyhood and schooling, which was divided between Clifton and Cheltenham, were marked by long separations from his pare