I have had a very busy professional career and have not been much concerned with its formative influences. I was born in Edinburgh on 2 October 1915 into an orthodox Jewish family which migrated to Scotland from Lithuania at the turn of the century. As my father was serving in the army during World War One I did not see him till he was ‘demobbed’ and as my mother had the responsibility of bringing up a family and running a small business on her own I did not see very much of her either. Yet, I consider that I was brought up in a very caring home. I attended Boroughmuir Secondary School where the standard was first-class and I concentrated on modern languages (French, German and English) and mathematics and was offered a place at Edinburgh University when I was 16 years old. I had also acquired a better than average knowledge of Hebrew as well as of Holy Writ and a smattering of Talmud. I then decided to study medicine so I spent an extra year at school to get the necessary grades in physics and chemistry and enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at 17 years and qualified in July 1938 at 22 years.