Fairley, Neil Hamilton (1891 - 1966)

Summary

Neil Fairley was a medical researcher with an international reputation in the field of tropical diseases, especially malaria. He is particularly noted for his contributions to the treatments of diseases affecting the troops during both world wars: schistosomiasis, dysenteries, typhus and malaria. In the 1920s he spent two short periods at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. During this time he worked on snake venoms and the developed diagnostic tests for hydatids. After several years in India, he establishing a practice in tropical medicine in London. Fairley enlisted again in the Australian Imperial Forces at the outbreak of WWII. In 1942 he was appointed Director of Medicine for the Australian Military Forces. His professional expertise in malaria had a profound effect on prosecution of military campaigns in Greece and the islands to Australia's north. He was appointed Chairman of the Combined Advisory Committee on Tropical Medicine Hygiene and Sanitation in 1943. After the war he returned to London where he was appointed the first Wellcome Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1968 the Royal College of Physicians, London, and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians inaugurated the Neil Hamilton Fairley Medal.

Details

Chronology

1915

Education - MB BS, University of Melbourne

1915 - 1916

Career position - Resident Medical Officer, Melbourne Hospital

1916 - 1918

Military service - Served with the Australian Army Medical Corps

1917

Education - MD, University of Melbourne

1918

Award - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

1920

Education - Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, University of Cambridge

1920

Education - Member, Royal College of Physicians, London

1920 - 1922

Career position - Research Assistant, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

1921

Award - David Syme Research Prize, University of Melbourne

1922 - 1925

Career position - Medical Research Officer, Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory and Honorary Consulting Physician, Jansitjee Jijibhoy and St George’s Hospital, Bombay, India

1927

Education - Doctor of Science (DSc), University of Melbourne

1927 - 1929

Career position - Research Assistant, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

1928

Career position - Fellow, Royal College of Physicians, London

1929 - 1940

Career position - Assistant Physician and Director of Pathology, Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London

1931

Award - Chalmers Memorial Medal for Research in Tropical Medicine

1939 - 1946

Military service - Served with Australian Imperial Forces

1940 - 1966

Career position - Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians

1941

Award - Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

1942 - 1946

Career position - Director of Medicine for Australian military forces

1942 - 1966

Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)

1945

Award - Bancroft Medal, Australian Medical Association

1946

Award - Richard Pierson Strong Medal, American Foundation of Tropical Medicine

1946 - 1949

Career position - Wellcome Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

1947

Award - Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

1948

Award - Moxon Medal, Royal College of Physicians, London

1949

Award - Honorary MD, University of Adelaide

1949

Award - Mary Kingsley Medal, University of Liverpool

1950

Award - James Cook Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1950

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)

1950

Award - Manson Medal, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, London

1951

Award - Doctor of Laws (LLD), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

1951 - 1953

Career position - President, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hy

1956

Award - Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc), University of Sydney

1957

Award - Buchanan Medal, Royal Society, London

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Neil Hamilton Fairley - Records, 1916 - 1991, MS 065; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Books

• Burnet, Macfarlane, Sir, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, 1915-1965 (Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 1971), 193 pp. Details
• Ford, Edward, Neil Hamilton Fairley (1891 - 1966) (Sydney: Australasian Medical Publishing Company, 1969), 19 pp. Details
• Howie-Willis, Ian, An unending war: the Australian Army's struggle against malaria 1885 - 2015 (Newport (N.S.W.): Big Sky Publishing, 2016), 348 pp. Details
• McDonald, G. L., Roll of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (Sydney: Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 1988), 332 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Fenner, Frank, 'Fairley, Sir Neil Hamilton (1891-1966), physician, medical scientist and army officer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 14: 1940 - 1980 Di-Kel, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), pp. 128-131. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140139b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituaries: Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley; Thelma Isabel Christie: E. J. Kenny; Stephen Lawrence Leach; Henry John Meldrum; Archibald Boscawen Boyd Ranclaud; Arthur Spencer Watts', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, 101 (1967), 47-50. Details
• Boyd, John Smith Knox, 'Neil Hamilton Fairley 1891-1966, elected F.R.S. 1942', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 12 (1966), 123-45. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1966.0005. Details
• Fairley, N., 'Sir Charles Martin, C.M.G., D.SC., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.C.P., F.R.S.', Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 49 (3) (1955), 289-90. Details
• Fairley, N. Hamilton, 'Symposium on snake bite: the present position of snake bite and the snake bitten in Australia tb14094.x', Medical Journal of Australia, 1 (1929), 296-313, https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1929.tb14094.x. Details
• Howie-Willis, Ian, 'Australian malariology during World War II (part 3 of "Pioneers of Australian military malariology"', Journal of Military and Veteran's History, 25 (2) (2017), 46-68. Details
• Keogh, E. V., 'Neil Hamilton Fairley', Medical Journal of Australia, 1966 (2) (1966), 723-6. Details
• Winkel, Kenneth D.; Mirtschin, Peter and Pearn, John, 'Twentieth Century Toxinology and Antivenom development in Australia', Toxicon, 48 (7) (2006), 738-754 . Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2641921. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/94286066. Details
• Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society [Online resource], Royal Society of London, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1966.0005. Details
• 'Fairley, N Hamilton (1891-1966)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-612572. Details
• 'Awarded honorary LLD, 1951', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Fairley, Neil Hamilton - Ms 65', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms065.html. Details

See also

• Fenner, F., 'Frank Macfarlane Burnet, 1899-1985', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (1) (1987), 39-77. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870710039. Details
• Howie-Willis, Ian, 'Malariology in Australia between the first and second world wars (part 2 of "Pioneers of Australian military malariology")', Journal of Military and Veterans' Health, 24 (2) (2016), 28-39. Details
• Morison, Patricia, The Martin spirit: Charles Martin and the foundation of biological science in Australia (Canberra: Halstead Press, 2019), 296 pp. Details
• Spencer, Margaret, Malaria: the Australian Experience, 1843-1991 (Townsville: Australian College of Tropical Medicine, 1994), 213 pp. Details