Alexander Mair (physician)

Prof Alexander Mair OBE FRSE DPH (1912–1995) was a Scottish public health expert.

Life

He was born in Portknockie in northern Scotland on 9 September 1912, the son of local herring fisherman, Alexander Mair (1881–1941) and his wife, Jessie Slater. His father worked on the Zulu class trawler "Evangeline".[1] He was educated locally and left school at the then normal UK age of 14. He worked in the fishing industry (the mainstay of the local community) but was an on-shore clerk overseeing catches in Buckie rather than being a fisherman.[2]

Not until the onset of the Second World War was he inspired to study Medicine, joining Aberdeen University as a mature student in 1939 and graduating MB ChB in 1942. He then joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was stationed first in Normandy in the aftermath of the D-Day landings and later in Brussels, rising to the rank of Captain.

After the war he returned to academia gaining a Diploma in Public Health at Aberdeen then beginning lecturing in Public Health 1948. In 1952 he became Senior Lecturer in Public Health at St Andrews University and was given his Professorship in 1954.[3]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1980. His proposers were John McQueen Johnston, Anthony Elliot Ritchie, John Cameron, Lord Cameron, R. M. S. Smellie.[4]

He retired in 1982 and died of a cardiac arrest in Broughty Ferry on 6 August 1995.[5] He is buried with his parents at Portknockie.

Publications
  • Silicosis in Aberdeen Granite Workers
  • Sir James MacKenzie GP (1853–1925)

Family

He was married to Nancy Waddington and had three children.

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References
  1. "Pirie Family Website". myweb.tiscali.co.uk. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  2. Ivor Batchelor. "ALEXANDER MAIR OBE, MD(Aberd), FRCPE, FSPH, FFCM" (PDF). Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  3. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  4. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  5. British Medical Journal obituary August 1995



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