Bryan Cruickshanks was an ophthalmic surgeon in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. He was born in Wallsend, Northumberland on 11 October 1935, the second child of William Blackwood Cruickshanks, a tradesman in the shipyards, and his wife, Jesse Cruickshanks née Brown. He excelled at Wallsend Grammar School an

Jacek Jerzy Kanski (always known as Jack) was born on 5 August 1939, in Warsaw, Poland. He was the only child of Jerzy Jordan Gustav Kanski and Adela Jozefa née Wroblewska. His father was head of the defence forces of Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly, the commander-in-chief and, in 1939, he accompanied th

Margaret Challis was a consultant ophthalmologist at Whipps Cross Hospital. Her parents were both doctors – her father, John Humphrey Thornton Challis, was a consultant anaesthetist at the London Hospital and her mother, Margaret Llewelyn Jones, a general practitioner in Woodford, Essex. Margaret wa