David Semple

{{for|the Scottish lawyer and antiquary|David Semple (antiquarian)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox military person | name = Sir David Semple | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1856|04|06|df=yes}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1937|01|07|1856|04|06|df=yes}} | burial_label = | burial_place = | birth_place = Derry, Ireland | death_place = Paddington, London, England | burial_coordinates =  | nickname = | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = Royal Army Medical Corps | service_years = 1883- | rank = Lieutenant-Colonel | service_number = | unit = | commands = | battles = | battles_label = | awards = | relations = | other_work = Bacteriologist }} Lieutenant-Colonel '''Sir David Semple''' (6 April 1856 – 7 January 1937) was a British Army officer who founded the Pasteur Institute at Kasauli in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The institute later came to be known as the Central Research Institute (CRI).

Semple was born in Derry, the son of William Semple of Castlederg, County Tyrone. He was educated at Foyle College and earned his MD and MCh degrees at Queen's University Belfast, followed by his Public Health degree from Cambridge in 1892.<ref name="burkegreatwar">{{cite book |title= Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor= Burke, Sir Bernard |editor-link=Bernard Burke |edition=76th |year= 1914 |page= 2520 |ref=Burke }}</ref>

Semple joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a surgeon on 3 February 1883, and was promoted to surgeon-major on 3 February 1895.<ref>Hart′s Army list, 1903</ref> He was stationed in Punjab when he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 3 February 1903.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue= 27526 |page=1133 |date= 20 February 1903}}</ref>

In 1911, he developed a nerve-tissue based rabies vaccine from the brains of sheep first made rabid and then killed. The 'Semple' vaccine however is known to have side-effects such as paralysis with high risk of other diseases, being just a crude form of churned brain-tissue. It needs administration around the stomach in a series of very painful injections administered over a period of seven to 14 days, a course that many do not complete. Moreover, it is not reliable and the World Health Organization (WHO) has been advocating its total disuse since 1993. (WHO literature )

He was given a knighthood in 1911,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Page 1462 {{!}} Issue 28469, 24 February 1911 {{!}} London ... |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/28469/page/1462 |access-date=2025-12-08 |work=The Gazette |language=en-GB}}</ref> and is buried in City of Westminster Cemetery, Hanwell.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070524111417/http://www.rabies.net/cont_41.semple_vaccine.php/ Chiron Vaccines Rabies Information Site] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20051112043637/http://www.westminster.gov.uk/communityandliving/burials/hanwell.cfm Hanwell Cemetery] * {{cite TIWW |article=Semple, Lieut.-Col. Sir David |page=228 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Semple, David}} Category:1856 births Category:1937 deaths Category:British immunologists Category:Royal Army Medical Corps officers Category:Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal Category:Knights Bachelor Category:British people in British India Category:Medical doctors from British India {{UK-med-bio-stub}}