Personal recollections of Sir Almroth Wright and Sir Alexander Fleming.

THE youngest, but one, of eight children of an Ayrshire farmer, Alexander Fleming was born at Lochfield Farm, near Darvel, on 6th August, 1881. He received his first schooling at Loudoun Moor School and at the age of 10 he went to the village school at Darvel; two years later he continued his education at Kilmarnock Academy. At 14 years of age he joined an elder brother in London and attended the Polytechnic, Regent Street, as a pupil. In 1897 he took a junior post in the office of a shipping company in the City where, as he told me, he worked for four years at a commencing salary of two and a half old pence an hour. In 1901 he returned to his studies, passed the London Matriculation Examination and decided on a medical career. He chose to enter St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, simply because he had played water-polo against St. Mary's. He easily won the Senior Entrance Scholarship and entered St. Mary's in 1902. As an undergraduate he won almost all the available scholarships, medals and class prizes and qualified as doctor with honours and a University Gold Medal. He was a good shot and a member of the London Scottish team which won the Daily Telegraph Cup at Bisley, two days before his final examination. A member of the hospital water-polo team, he also took part in amateur theatricals. I first met Fleming in January 1922 when I was granted a Research Scholarship to work with him in the Research Institute, then known as the Inoculation Department, in St. Mary's Hospital. Thereafter he was my mentor and close friend until his death on 11th March 1955, a span of 33 years.