Person
Fairley, Neil Hamilton (1891 - 1966)
KBE FRS
- Born
- 15 July 1891
Inglewood, Victoria, Australia - Died
- 19 April 1966
Sonning, Berkshire, England - Occupation
- Malariologist and Medical scientist
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
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
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/94286066. Details
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2641921. 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
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education