David Alexander Anderson Primrose

David Alexander Anderson Primrose initially took on university training in accountancy and law and was attached to the accountancy firm Peat, Marwick and Mitchell. The war intervened, however, and he spent almost six years with the Eighth Army, mostly in Egypt, Libya, and Italy. On his return to Glasgow he completed his earlier studies, graduating in 1947, and started as a medical student, graduating in 1951. Law, accountancy, and medicine were a unique combination that was to prove useful in later years.

In 1950 he married a fellow doctor, Marjory Snodgrass, who also came also from a medical family. One of David’s initial publications was a joint paper with his new wife, relating to the role of radioactive phosphorus in the …