Alexander Galbraith Cross was born in London on 29 March 1908, the son of Walter Galbraith, a bank manager, and his wife Mary Stewart, née McKeich, a farmer's daughter. He was educated at King's College School, Caius College Cambridge, and St Mary's Hospital, where he was a University Scholar and

Jean Margeurite Dollar was born in London in 1901. Her father, grandfather and uncle were veterinary surgeons practising in Bond Street. After school in London she attended the London School of Medicine for Women, from which she graduated MB BS in 1927. She early devoted herself to ophthalmology and