Sir Alexander Fleming

1881 - 1955

Sir Alexander Fleming at work
©2011 Gazetteer for Scotland

Medical Scientist. Born at Lochfield Farm near Darvel, East Ayrshire, where he is commemorated by a monument in the town square. Fleming was educated in Darvel School and Kilmarnock Academy, before moving to London where he entered St. Mary's Medical School in the University of London. In 1928, he discovered the world's first antibiotic drug - Penicillin. This was as a result of an "accident" where mould was allowed to grow on a bacterial culture. In the same year, he was appointed to a Chair in St. Mary's Medical School. A prodigious scientist, Fleming was widely honoured, including a knighthood (1944) and a Nobel Prize for Medicine (1945).

Fleming is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral (London).

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