Anderson Gray McKendrick

Fellow

Date of Fellowship admission: 5 February 1924

Anderson Gray McKendrick was born in Edinburgh in 1876, the son of the physiologist John Gray McKendrick. He trained in medicine at the University of Glasgow, graduating MB ChB in 1900, and undertook further study in embryology, physiology, and anatomy in Jena. McKendrick served in the Indian Medical Service from 1905 to 1920, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and acting as Director of the Pasteur Institute in Kasauli during the First World War. Alongside his medical career, he pursued advanced study in physical chemistry and mathematics, developing a distinctive interdisciplinary approach. In 1920, McKendrick became Superintendent of the Research Laboratory of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Working with chemists and mathematicians, he made influential contributions to the mathematical modelling of epidemics and population dynamics, showing how biological interactions could be analysed using methods analogous to those of physics. McKendrick died in 1943.

Year of medical qualification

1900

Fellowship
The main qualification issued by the College, awarded regularly since the College’s foundation. This qualification was granted based on demonstrated breadth of experience and did not require an individual to pass a certain examination.