{{Short description|Scotland international rugby union player}} {{other people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox rugby biography | name = Sir Andrew Balfour | image = Sir Andrew Balfour 1913.jpeg | caption = | birth_name = Andrew Balfour | birth_date = {{birth date|1873|3|21|df=y}} | birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1931|1|30|1873|3|21|df=yes}} | death_place = Penshurst, England | height = | weight = | school = George Watson's College | university = Edinburgh University<br/>Caius, Cambridge | occupation = Medical officer | position = Forward | repyears1 = 1896–1897 | repteam1 = Scotland | amatteam1 = Cambridge University | amatteam2 = Watsonians | coachteams1 = | coachyears1 = | amatyears1 = | ru_amclubcaps = | ru_amclubpoints = | ru_amupdate = | provinceyears1 = | province1 = Edinburgh District | provinceapps1 = | provincepoints1 = | repcaps1 = 4 | reppoints1 = 0 | ru_ntupdate = | ru_coachupdate = | module2 = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | office = President of the Scottish Rugby Union | term_start = 1930 | term_end = 1931 | predecessor = Augustus Grant-Asher | successor = John Sturrock | prior_term = | order = 51st }} }}
'''Sir Andrew Balfour''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|KCMG|CB}} (21 March 1873 – 30 January 1931) was a Scottish Medical Officer who specialised in tropical medicine. Balfour spent twelve years in Khartoum, Sudan and was the Medical Officer of Health in the city. As well as writing medical publications, Balfour also wrote historical fiction and fantasy novels, the majority of which were published from 1897 to 1903. In his youth Balfour was also a notable sportsman playing rugby union for Cambridge University in the Varsity Match and was selected to represent the Scotland national team.
==Medical career== thumb|right|10 Henrietta Street, first home of the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research. Balfour was born in Edinburgh on 21 March 1873 to Thomas Alexander Goldie Balfour.<ref name=Venn>{{acad|id=BLFR896A|name=Balfour, Andrew}}</ref> Balfour was educated at George Watson's College before matriculating to Edinburgh University.
He graduated from Edinburgh with a MB, CM degree in 1894 and joined his father's medical practice.<ref name="BMJ obit">{{cite journal |date=7 February 1931 |title=Sir Andrew Balfour |journal=The British Medical Journal |volume=1 |issue=3657 |pages=245–6 |doi=10.1136/bmj.1.3657.245 |pmc=2313829 |pmid=20775996}}</ref> Within two years of leaving Edinburgh University, Balfour returned to education when he entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, as an advanced student.<ref name=Venn/> Balfour spent his time in Cambridge specialising in the prevention of disease, the field in which he would concentrate the rest of his medical career. He studied under Kanthack, performing research work on typhoid fever, and later spent a period of study at Strasbourg, before taking the D.PH. at Cambridge in 1897.<ref name="BMJ obit"/>
He completed his MD in Edinburgh in 1898; his thesis on the toxicity of dyestuffs in relation to river pollution winning him the student gold medal.<ref name="BMJ obit"/><ref>{{Cite web|last=Balfour|first=Andrew|date=1898|title=The toxicity of the dye stuffs : with special reference to their effects upon the public health, and to river pollution|language=en|hdl=1842/27811|url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/27811|access-date=29 June 2024|archive-date=6 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191106133243/https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/27811|url-status=live}}</ref> He returned to the university to earn a BSc in Public Health in 1900.
In April 1900, Balfour travelled to South Africa to serve as a civil surgeon in the Second Boer War. He was posted to Estcourt as part of No. 7 General Hospital<ref name="Boer War">{{cite web | url=http://www.angloboerwar.com/people/surname_b.htm | title=Anglo Boer War - Personalities, Surname B | work=angloboerwar.com | accessdate=17 February 2010 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100719211810/http://www.angloboerwar.com/people/surname_b.htm | archivedate=19 July 2010}}</ref> and later given duty at the pestilential typhoid camp in Pretoria. Later in the campaign he was put in charge of the British Garrison and Boer Laagers at Kaapsehoop.<ref name="Boer War"/> While in South Africa, Balfour contracted typhoid and returned to England before the end of 1901.<ref name="BMJ obit"/> During his time in South Africa, he came under the influence of the prominent Scottish parasitologist Patrick Manson, and from this period he became an ardent student of tropical medicine.<ref name="BMJ obit"/>[[File:Wellcome Tropical Lab, Khartoum.jpeg|thumb|300px|left|Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratory, Khartoum. Henry Wellcome is sat centrally with white pith helmet on lap; Balfour is to his right.]]
Balfour married in September 1902 to Grace, daughter of G. Nutter of Sidcup,<ref name="Boer War" /> and the same year he was made the director of the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratory in Khartoum in Sudan where he also took up the post of Medical Officer of Health. Within two years he was appointed sanitary advisor to the Sudanese government.<ref name="BMJ obit" /><ref>{{cite news|last1=Adeel|first1=Ahmed|title=Andrew Balfour, of Khartoum :A pioneer of tropical medicine worldwide|url=http://www.sudanjp.org/uploads/9/2/7/0/9270568/2013_1_hp_andrew_balfour_of_khartoum.pdf|accessdate=18 February 2016|work=Sudanese Journal of Paediatrics|issue=13:63–74|date=2013|archive-date=4 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004204915/http://www.sudanjp.org/uploads/9/2/7/0/9270568/2013_1_hp_andrew_balfour_of_khartoum.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> His new role within Sudan allowed Balfour to move in high-profile social circles, bringing him into contact with the likes of Lord Cromer, Lord Kitchener and Sir Reginald Wingate.<ref name="BMJ obit" /> During his time in Khartoum, he reduced deaths by malaria by 90 per cent through the removal of mosquito breeding grounds and improving the city's clean water systems and sanitation.<ref name="Wellcome Trust">{{cite web | url=http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/History/WTX052449.htm | title=Henry Wellcome's tropical medicine laboratories | work=Wellcome Trust | author=Penny Bailey | date=9 December 2008 | accessdate=17 February 2010 | archive-date=10 October 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101010035438/http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/History/WTX052449.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1907 the Khedive awarded him the Fourth Class of the Imperial Ottoman Order of Osmanieh.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28006|page=2001|date=22 March 1907}}</ref> The same period also saw Balfour contribute to four reports produced by the Wellcome Laboratory and in 1911 he co-wrote with Major R.G. Archibald a review of the advances in tropical medicine, which anticipated the work of the Tropical Disease Bureau which was set up in 1912.<ref name="BMJ obit" />
His time in Africa also saw Balfour oversee the introduction of a floating laboratory, a gift from Dr Henry Wellcome to the Sudan Government. This allowed the department to conduct scientific work in the upper reaches of the Nile, and aided the understanding of diseases of the blood. Balfour's most notable work during this period was on spirochaetosis.<ref name="BMJ obit"/> He was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1912 King's Birthday Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28617|supp=y|pages=4299–4300|date=11 June 1912}}</ref> After suffering from ill-health in Africa,<ref name="Wellcome Trust"/> he returned to Britain in 1913, to found the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research in London, and to organise what would later become the Wellcome Museum of Medical Science. 1913 also saw Balfour travel South America and the West Indies for research purposes.<ref name="BMJ obit"/>
With the outbreak of World War I, Balfour again joined the British war effort. Serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Originally posted in France in 1914, he was later a member of the medical advisory committee in Mudros, Salonica and Egypt.<ref name="BMJ obit"/> After returning to England he was given the role of scientific adviser to the Inspector Surgeon General of the British forces in East Africa.<ref name=Venn/> During the war he was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1918 New Year Honours,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30450|supp=y|page=7|date=1 January 1918}}</ref> and was Mentioned in Despatches on 12 February 1918.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30521|supp=y|page=1933|date=8 February 1918}}</ref> He relinquished his commission on 31 May 1919.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31444|supp=y|page=8726|date=8 July 1919}}</ref> In 1920 he was awarded the Mary Kingsley award by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.<ref name="l579">{{cite web | title=Mary Kingsley Medal | website=LSTM | date=1983-11-09 | url=https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/about/125/the-lstm-story/mary-kingsley-medal | access-date=2024-07-21}}</ref>
alt=London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street|left|thumb|London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street
In 1923 Balfour was appointed Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and oversaw the construction of a new school. He also served as president of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1925–1927. His papers are available from the archives at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=GB 0809 Balfour - Balfour, Sir Andrew (1873-1931) |url=http://calmview.lshtm.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=GB+0809+Balfour&pos=3 |access-date=2017-03-31 |website=calmview.lshtm.ac.uk |language=en |archive-date=1 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401054822/http://calmview.lshtm.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=GB+0809+Balfour&pos=3 |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 1929 he suffered from a nervous breakdown, believed to have been caused by the pressures of his new post; and although the ''British Medical Journal'' reported he fully recovered;<ref name="BMJ obit" /> other sources state his breakdown was complete.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chronology of LSHTM |url=http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/archives/chronology.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090724191727/http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/archives/chronology.html |archive-date=24 July 2009 |access-date=19 July 2021 |website=lshtm.ac.uk}}</ref> In the 1930 New Year Honours he was promoted {{Abbr|KCMG|Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George}}, thus becoming Sir Andrew Balfour;<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33566|supp=y|page=4|date=31 December 1929}}</ref> but was later admitted to Cassel Hospital in Penshurst, Kent to be treated for clinical depression.
His uncle was John Hutton Balfour botanist and 7th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Her Majesty's Botanist.
==Rugby Union career==
===Amateur career===
Balfour was a keen sportsman, and as a youth was an amateur boxer and notable rugby player. His first came to note as a rugby player when he represented Watsonians, a club for former pupils of George Watson's College.
===Provincial career===
He was capped by Edinburgh District in 1898.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 December 1898 |title=Google News Archive |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PoxEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RbUMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3794%2C5994353 |access-date=19 July 2021 |website=The Glasgow Herald |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205063943/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PoxEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RbUMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3794,5994353 |url-status=live }}</ref>
===International career=== thumb|right|250px|Balfour, back row second from left, with the 1896 Scotland team It was while representing Watsonians that he was selected to play for the Scotland national team, in the opening game of the 1896 Home Nations Championship against Wales.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Andrew Balfour{{!}} Profile |url=http://www.espnscrum.com/scotland/rugby/player/1173.html |access-date=19 July 2021 |website=ESPN scrum |archive-date=9 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140409022338/http://www.espnscrum.com/scotland/rugby/player/1173.html |url-status=live }}</ref> At the age of 22, he was placed into his favoured position in the pack, in a Scottish team that contained two fellow Watsonians, Harry Smith and Robin Welsh. Wales won the game by two tries to nil. Despite the loss, Balfour would play in the remaining two games of the tournament, a scoreless draw away against Ireland and then an impressive win over England, which gave Scotland the Calcutta Cup for the fourth successive year.<ref>{{cite book |last=Godwin |first=Terry |title=The International Rugby Championship 1883-1983 |year=1984 |publisher=Willow Books |location=London |page=48 |isbn=0-00-218060-X}}</ref> The following season (1896/97), Balfour had enrolled at Cambridge and won a place in the Cambridge University team. He played in the first of two Varsity Matches at the end of 1896 winning his first sporting 'Blue' in a victory over Oxford University.<ref>Marshall (1951), p. 94.</ref>
Just a month later, the 1897 Home Nations Championship was underway, but Balfour was not selected for the national team, and would not rejoin the team until the final match of the competition, an away encounter with England. Scotland lost the game and Balfour never represented the team again. Balfour was still in favour with Cambridge, and was part of the University team to win the Varsity Match in 1897.<ref>Marshall (1951), p. 97.</ref>
===Administrative career===
After his playing career came to an end, Balfour continued his association with rugby union as a supporter of London Scottish F.C., and became a national selector for the Scottish Rugby Union.<ref name="BMJ obit" /> During the 1929/30 season, Balfour was made Vice-President of the Scottish Rugby Union, the President being Sir Augustus Asher. The next season Balfour took on the role of President of the SRU, but did not complete the term due to his untimely death.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thorburn |first=A.M.C. |title=The Scottish Rugby Union, Official History |year=1985 |publisher=Scottish Rugby Union and Collins Publishers|page=124 |isbn= 0-00-435697-7}}</ref>
==Literary career== Outside the medical profession, for which he wrote several papers and publications, Balfour was also a keen writer of adventure novels. In 1897, while still at Cambridge University, he completed and saw published, his first novel ''By Stroke of Sword''. Balfour's novels were mainly historical adventures, often set in Scotland and many having connections with his own medical background. Balfour wrote three historical novels. ''By Stroke of Sword'' is about Mary, Queen of Scots. ''To Arms!'' is about the Jacobite rising of 1715. ''Vengeance Is Mine'' is about Napoleon during the Hundred Days period.<ref>McGarry, Daniel D. White, Sarah Harriman, ''Historical Fiction Guide: Annotated Chronological, Geographical, and Topical List of Five Thousand Selected Historical Novels''. Scarecrow Press, 1963 (p.133, 173, 255).</ref> His final novel, ''The Golden Kingdom'' (1903) stands out as a lost race novel, described by ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' as being "under the influence of H. Rider Haggard and Robert Louis Stevenson".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/balfour_andrew|title=Balfour, Andrew|encyclopedia=sf-encyclopedia.com|access-date=17 July 2015|archive-date=21 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721220959/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/balfour_andrew|url-status=live}}</ref> [[File:Balfour plaque 1.jpg|alt=Plaque to commemorate Sir Andrew Balfour at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine|thumb|Plaque to commemorate Sir Andrew Balfour at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine]]
===Written works=== [[File:The grave of Andrew Balfour, Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg|thumb|The grave of Andrew Balfour, Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh]] '''Medical''' * ''Medicine, Public Health and Preventive Medicine'' (with C. J. Lewis, 1902) * ''Memoranda on Medical Diseases in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Areas'' (1916) * ''War Against Tropical Disease'' (1920) * ''Reports to the Health Committee of the League of Nations on Tuberculosis and Sleeping Sickness in Equatorial Africa'' (1923) * ''Health Problems of the Empire'' (with H. H. Scott, 1924)
'''Novels''' * ''By Stroke of Sword'' (1897) * ''To Arms!'' (1898) [https://openlibrary.org/b/OL342912M/To_arms! Available at OpenLibrary] * ''Vengeance is Mine'' (1899) [https://openlibrary.org/b/OL7215210M/Vengeance_is_mine Available at OpenLibrary] * ''Cashiered and Other War Stories'' (1902) * ''The Golden Kingdom'' (1903) [https://openlibrary.org/b/OL23402058M/golden_kingdom Available at OpenLibrary]
== Death == Balfour died in 1931 during his residence at Cassel Hospital. His frozen body was found on 30 January in the grounds of the hospital after he had fallen from a window.<ref name="LSoH&TM">{{cite web|url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/37/4036.htm|title=Sir Andrew Balfour (1873-1931)|work=London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine|accessdate=17 February 2010|archive-date=6 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606051143/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/37/4036.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Greenwood |first=David| title=Antimicrobial drugs: chronicle of a twentieth century medical triumph| publisher=Oxford University Press US |year=2008| page= 271| isbn=978-0-19-953484-5}}</ref> He was survived by his wife and two sons.
He is buried in Edinburgh with his parents in Grange Cemetery. The grave lies in the south-west section close to the central embankment containing the vaults. The headstone has fallen and is currently (2015) lying on its back.
==Family==
His daughter Margaret married the Edinburgh physician James Duncan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 February 1917 |title=Heriot Row History - James Duncan |url=http://www.heriotrow.org/James-Duncan/ |access-date=19 July 2021 |website=Heriot Row History |archive-date=24 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724143300/http://heriotrow.org/James-Duncan/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
==References== {{wikisource|works=or}} {{reflist|30em}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |last=Marshall |first=Howard |author2=Jordon, J.P. |title=Oxford v Cambridge, The Story of the University Rugby Match |year=1951 |publisher=Clerke & Cockeran|location=London }}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balfour, Andrew}} Category:1873 births Category:1931 deaths Category:Medical doctors from Edinburgh Category:People educated at George Watson's College Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:19th-century Scottish medical doctors Category:20th-century Scottish medical doctors Category:Scottish rugby union players Category:Rugby union forwards Category:Cambridge University R.U.F.C. players Category:Scotland international rugby union players Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:People of the Second Boer War Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Royal Army Medical Corps officers Category:Deaths by defenestration Category:Scottish historical novelists Category:Scottish medical writers Category:Scottish fantasy writers Category:Victorian novelists Category:Scottish people of the British Empire Category:Burials at the Grange Cemetery Category:Scottish knights Category:Edinburgh District (rugby union) players Category:Watsonian FC players Category:Presidents of the Scottish Rugby Union Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age Category:Writers from Edinburgh Category:Rugby union players from Edinburgh Category:Presidents of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Category:British expatriates in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan