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Born in Berlin, Joseph Norman Blau ("Nat") escaped to England at the start of the second world war. His Polish parents and sister were later captured and shot by the Nazis. Deciding to study medicine, he secured an open science scholarship to St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. After national service, a Nuffield Medical Scholarship took him to Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, where he studied the thymus. Returning to London, he continued his MD research on Hassall's corpuscles at Guy's Hospital, supported by an MRC grant, while also working as a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases.