Alexander Fleming Lived 1881-1955 Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881 at his parents’ farm located near the small town of Darvel, in Scotland, UK. At the age of 11 his academic potential was recognized and he was awarded a scholarship to Kilmarnock Academy. Young Fleming In 1901, at the age of 20, he inherited some money from his uncle, John Fleming. He decided to use the money to go to medical school. He passed his exams with the highest marks of any student in the United Kingdom. In 1903, age 22, Alexander enrolled at London’s St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, graduating with distinction three years later as Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. In 1914 World War 1 broke out and Fleming, age 33, joined the army, becoming a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps working in field hospitals in France. There, in a series of brilliant experiments, he established that antiseptic agents used to treat wounds and prevent infection were actually killing more soldiers than the infections were. Lysozyme In 1919 Fleming returned to research at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London. His wartime experience had firmly established his view that antibacterial agents should be used only if they worked with the body’s natural defenses rather than against them; in particular, agents must not harm white blood cells. His first discovery of such an agent came in 1922, when he was 41 years old. In 1928, Fleming discovered penicillin. In 1945 Alexander Fleming shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. On March 11, 1955 Alexander Fleming died age 73 in London of a heart attack. His ashes were placed in St Paul’s Cathedral.
