Walter Perceval Yetts was born in Reading and educated in London and Lausanne. He entered the Royal Navy Medical Service in 1903 and retired with the rank of staff surgeon in 1912. He was acting medical officer at the British legation in 1913 and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I. From 1920 to 1927 he was a medical officer in the Ministry of Health. In 1930 he made a major career change when he was appointed the first lecturer in Chinese art and archaeology at the School of Oriental Studies at London University. In 1932 he became Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology at London University and held the post until his retirement in 1946.
Sir Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell was born and educated in London. He developed considerable skills in draughtsmanship and worked for Siemens Brothers and then, from 1914, the Deutsche Bank in London. By 1910 his interests were drawn to Islamic architecture for which he started collecting a library that was eventually to become one of the most comprehensive private collections of its kind. As well as working at his engineering day job, he spent time studying eastern architecture. In May 1914 he applied, unsuccessfully, to join the Archaeological Survey of India. The First World War broke out in August of that year, and in April 1916 he was selected on probation for appointment as Assistant Equipment Officer in the Royal Flying Corps. Some time afterwards he was posted to Egypt. He rose through the ranks, and by July 1919 had been appointed (as an Army Captain) as Inspector of Monuments under General Allenby's Occupied Enemy Territory Administration in Palestine and Syria.
In May 1920 Creswell drew up a proposal for a History of the Muslim Architecture of Egypt - this project was to continue until his death in 1974 with a sixth volume prepared but unpublished at that time. Creswell was appointed a lecturer at Fuad University (now Cairo University) in Cairo in 1931, and within three years was made Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture. He held this post until 1951. In 1956 he was appointed a Distinguished Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the American University in Cairo. In June 1973, his health failing, Creswell returned to England. He died on 8 April 1974.
Gordon Hannington Luce was born in Gloucester. He graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with a degree in Classics. In 1912 Luce was appointed Lecturer in English Literature at Government College, Rangoon, later a constituent college of the University of Rangoon. There he developed a lasting friendship with the young Pali scholar, Pe Maung Tin, and married his sister, Ma Tee Tee. During the Japanese invasion in 1942 Luce and his wife escaped into India. He returned to Rangoon after the war and remained there until 1964, when, like other foreigners, he was forced to leave the country. His final fifteen years were spent on Jersey. He published widely on subjects relating to Burma.