Prof Kenneth Boyd Fraser

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

MC (10 March 1917 – 17 July 2001) was a British virologist and hero of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He was known to friends as Kenny Fraser. He introduced

Immunofluorescence Immunofluorescence is a technique used for light microscopy with a fluorescence microscope and is used primarily on microbiological samples. This technique uses the specificity of antibodies to their antigen to target fluorescent dyes to specif ...

in both academic and clinical fields. He discovered a link between the measles virus and

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

Life

He was born in Aberdeen on 10 March 1917, the son of Kenneth Fraser and Mary Fraser (née Boyd). He studied Medicine at Aberdeen University graduating MB ChB in 1940. In 1941, he joined the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

and given the rank of captain. He was posted to the

Chin Hills The Chin Hills are a range of mountains in Chin State, northwestern Burma, Burma (Myanmar), that extends northward into India's Manipur state. Geography The highest peak in the Chin Hills is Khonu Msung, or Mount Victoria, in southern Chin State ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. Here a combined British and Indian force fought Japanese troops. In 1943 Fraser won the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

for rescuing a

sepoy ''Sepoy'' () was the Persian-derived designation originally given to a professional Indian infantryman, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its oth ...

whilst under heavy fire and then carrying him on his back 3 km over rough terrain to a place of safety. He returned to Aberdeen University after the war as a lecturer in the Department of Bacteriology. He was given his doctorate in 1950. Being awarded a Nuffield Grant he spent part of 1951 and 1952 in Australia working with Sir MacFarlane Burnet at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Here he did a series of critical experiments on the influenza virus genome. In 1959 he moved from Aberdeen to Glasgow University as senior lecturer in the Institute of Virology. In 1961 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

Guido Pontecorvo Guido Pellegrino Arrigo Pontecorvo FRS FRSE (29 November 1907 – 25 September 1999) was an Italian-born Scottish geneticist. Life Guido Pontecorvo was born on 29 November 1907 in Pisa into a family of wealthy Italian industrialists. He was on ...

, Daniel Fowler Cappell, Norman Davidson, and William Ogilvy Kermack. In 1966 he was appointed Professor of Micobiology at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

. On his death he left £50,000 to the university to fund the Kenneth B Fraser Memorial Lecture. In 1982 he retired to Altnaha near

Tomintoul Tomintoul (; from gd, Tom an t-Sabhail, meaning "Hillock of the Barn") is a village in the Moray council area of Scotland in the historic county of Banffshire. Within Cairngorms National Park, the village lies close to the banks of the River ...

. He died on 17 July 2001.

Publications

*''Measles Virus and Its Biology'' (1978) *''Don't Believe A Word Of It'' (a memoir of his days in the Chin Hills)

Family

In 1948 he married Dr Leslie Fraser who predeceased him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Kenneth Boyd 1917 births 2001 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Recipients of the Military Cross British immunologists Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Academics of Queen's University Belfast Scottish non-fiction writers