William John Dickson Bradfield, or ‘Bill’, was a consultant surgeon at Kingston Hospital in Surrey. He was born in London on 23 June 1924, the only son and second child of John Ernest Bradfield, a businessman, and Marjorie Elizabeth née Dickson, the daughter of a silk merchant. Bill was educated at

Paul Seargeant was the only child of an automobile engineer, Thomas William Seargeant, and May Lilian née Sanders. He was born in Bristol on 25 February 1924. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Bristol University, where he won gold medals in medicine and surgery, and the Royal Hospital go

Howard Mitchell Jamison was born in London on 19 January, 1917, the son of James Jamison, a schoolmaster. He studied at the Sir Walter St John's School and the Regent Street Polytechnic before winning a scholarship to St Bartholomew's Hospital. He qualified MB BS in 1941 and, before joining the Army