William Frankland: the “grandfather of allergy”

William Frankland (“Bill”), the British clinical allergist who transformed global understanding of allergies, has died aged 108. He developed the pollen count in order to help people with hay fever, worked with Alexander Fleming, treated the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and survived three and a half years as a Japanese prisoner of war. Working for the NHS for 70 years, he published several papers as a centenarian, the last in 2019. A little more than a year ago, he was still jetting off to international conferences and communicating with patients.

Frankland combined a unique scientific talent with humanity and compassion. I knew him when he was on the General Practitioner editorial advisory board while I was editor. He was easy going, modest, and humorous, with an incisive intellect and a passion for communicating with both professional and lay audiences.