Charles Alexander Wells was born in Liverpool on 9 January 1898 the elder son of Percy M Wells. His early education was at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby, until 1916 when he joined the Royal Field Artillery for the final two years of the first world war. He continued his education at Liverpool Uni

Illtyd James was born in Barry, Glamorgan, on 12 July 1900, the eldest son of Evan Thomas James, a master tailor, and Elizabeth Jones, a farmer's daughter. He was educated at Barry County School, where he held a county scholarship, and later at University College Cardiff (where he took a BSc in 1921

John Henry Milnes Walker was born on 16 March 1902 in Wakefield, the son of John William Walker and his wife Constance Elizabeth, née Holdsworth. His father and grandfather had both been surgeons on the staff of Clayton Hospital and his wife's father had been a physician there. He was educated at Ou

Griffith John Griffiths was born in Barry on 23 September 1901. He was educated at Barry County School and Cardiff University before qualifying from the Middlesex Hospital. He was then in the Royal Air Force Medical Branch for three years on a short service commission in Egypt and Iraq before return

Arthur Elliot-Smith was born in Cairo on 3 June 1901. He was the son of Sir Grafton Elliot-Smith the distinguished anatomist and anthropologist; his mother's maiden name was Kathleen Macready. He graduated from Clare College, Cambridge, before coming to University College Hospital and on from which

Dudley Marks was born on 3 April, 1899 at Peckham Rye, and was educated at Haberdasher's Aske's School from whence he secured a scholarship to Cambridge. With the outbreak of the first world war he joined the Queen's Own Regiment on his 18th birthday in 1917. In the following year he suffered severe

William Alexander Duncan Drummond was born in Cape Town on 16 September 1901 where his father was then working for the Anglo-American Tobacco Company. The family later returned to England. Having initially studied engineering and lost two fingers of his left hand in an accident at the Liverpool ship