Who was Alexander Fleming?
Discoverer of Penicillin.
Date and Place of Birth:
6th August 1881, Lochfield, Darvel, Ayr, Scotland
Family Background:
Son of a farmer.
Education:
Local Village School. Kilmarnock Academy.
Chronology/Biography of Alexander Fleming:
After leaving the Kilmarnock Academy he went
to London to become a shipping Clerk.
1909: Qualified
as a specialist Surgeon at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London
where he was to spend the rest of his career. As he was an expert
marksman with the College Rifle team he managed to find his way
into Sir Almroth Wright's bacteriological laboratory. He became
the first person to use anti typhoid vaccines on people.
1914-18: Served
during the First World War as a medical officer in France.
1922: Discovered
Iysozyme whilst trying to find a cure for the common cold, an enzyme
present in mucus which kills some bacteria.
1928: A chance exposure
of a culture dish of staphylococci lead to his discovery of penicillin.
1938: Appointed
Professor of Bacteriology at London.
1943: Elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
1944: Knighted.
1945: Oxford pathologists
Howard Florey and Ernest Chain, had worked on ways of isolating
the volatile penicillin and together with Fleming they shared the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Marriage:
1. 1915 to Sarah Marion (died 1949).
2 1953 to Dr Ama Lia Koutsouri-Voureka a colleague at the hospital.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
St. Mary's Hospital Museum, Praed Street, WC1
1NY.
Date and Place of Death:
11th March 1955, London, England.
Age at Death:
73.
Site of Grave:
St. Paul’s Cathedral Crypt, London, England.
Fleming's Grave marker in St Paul's Cathedral
(© A Blagg)
