Chirag Din Chohan was a hakim (or practitioner of alternative medicine) and eye specialist. He first settled in Harrogate. In 1925, he moved to Middlesbrough with his English wife Florence, a nurse, to care for Florence's sick sister. In 1933, Dr Din opened his first practice in Kensington Road, Middlesbrough, and in 1937 a second practice in nearby Linthorpe Road. He was one of several family members who had been coming to England since the 1890s to work as herbalists.