Philip Neville Awdry was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at United Oxford Hospitals and Oxford Royal Hospital for the Blind. Born in 1933, he was the son of Neville John Awdry TD and his wife, Joan née Visger. Ophthalmologist to the Royal Commonwealth Society Blind Mobile Field Team, it is possible

Alan Patterson was born on 6 May 1933. At his secondary school he was one of the only two students considered good enough to attend university. He studied medicine at Liverpool University commencing in 1950 and qualifying in 1956. Awarded the Robert Gee fellowship in anatomy, he obtained a doctorate