Andrew Elkington was a consultant ophthalmologist in Southampton and one of the founders of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. He was born on 12 December 1935 in Newport, Shropshire, into a medical family; his ancestors had been doctors since the eighteenth century. His father, George Ernest Elk

John Cappin was a consultant ophthalmologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary from 1975 to 1999. He was born in London in 1938 to Louis and Yetta Cappin; his father was a clothing manufacturer in the East End of London and Cumbernauld, Scotland. John was the eldest of three brothers. He attended Mercers