Wilson , Sir , Graham Selby , 1895-1987 , Knight , medical bacteriologist

Wilson , Sir , Graham Selby , 1895-1987 , Knight , medical bacteriologist

Sir Graham Selby Wilson was born on 10 September 1895 in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated at various schools, including Mill Hill School and Epsom College, and entered King's College London, 1912. During World War One he joined the clinical school at Charing Cross Hospital, where he qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1916; later joining the Royal Army Medical Corps serving as a captain and specialist in bacteriology, until 1920. He then joined the department headed by William Whiteman Carlton Topley (1886-1944), at Charing Cross Hospital and moved to the University of Manchester in 1923.

Wilson became reader in bacteriology at the University of London, 1927 and was appointed Professor of Bacteriology as Applied to Hygiene at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1930. Prior to World War Two, Wilson assisted Topley in creating plans for an emergency bacteriological service, to be mobilized in the event of war to control expected epidemics of infectious disease. Wilson assisted in the development of the Emergency Public Health Laboratory Service (EPHLS) and was appointed its director, 1941-1963.

Among his achievements Wilson was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1930; fellow of the Royal Society in 1978; knighted, 1962, and received an honorary LLD from Glasgow University, 1962. He died on 5 April 1987 in the Westminster Hospital, London.

Publications include: The bacteriological grading of milk By G S Wilson and others (H M Stationery Office, London, 1935) and The hazards of immunization: based on University of London Heath Clark lectures, 1966, delivered at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Athlone P, London, 1967).