{{short description|Scottish bacteriologist and a senior officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]] | name = Sir John Boyd | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|FRS|FRCP}} | image = File:Sir John Boyd. Photograph. Wellcome V0026072.jpg | alt = | caption = | office = Director, [[Wellcome Laboratories of Tropical Medicine]] | term_start = 1946 | term_end = 1955 | office2 = Director of Pathology, [[War Office]] | term_start2 = 1945 | term_end2 = 1946 | birth_name = John Smith Knox Boyd | birth_date = 18 September 1891 | birth_place = [[Largs]], [[Ayrshire]], Scotland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|06|10|1891|09|18|df=yes}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} [[Brigadier]] '''Sir John Smith Knox Boyd''' (18 September 1891 – 10 June 1981)<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Boyd, Sir John Smith Knox (1891–1981), bacteriologist|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30842|access-date=2021-07-07| date=2004 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30842| isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Boyd, Brig. Sir John (Smith Knox), (18 Sept. 1891–10 June 1981)|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-162247|access-date=2021-07-07|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|date=2007 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u162247|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1 }}</ref> was a Scottish bacteriologist and a senior officer in the [[Royal Army Medical Corps]] (RAMC).<ref name="times"/>
== Biography == Boyd was born in [[Largs]], [[Ayrshire]],<ref>''1901 Scotland Census''</ref> to John Knox Boyd, a bank agent, and his wife Margaret Wilson Smith, the younger Boyd attended [[Largs Academy]] before studying medicine at [[University of Glasgow|Glasgow University]] under Sir [[Robert Muir (pathologist)|Robert Muir]] and [[Carl Hamilton Browning|Carl Browning]]. He came top in his year, securing the Brunton Medal, when he graduated [[Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery|MB ChB]] in 1913 (he subsequently secured the [[Diploma in Public Health]] (DPH) from Cambridge in 1924 and the [[Doctor of Medicine]] (MD) degree from Glasgow in 1948) and joined the RAMC the following year, serving in France, Belgium and [[Macedonian front|Salonika]] in the [[First World War]]. He remained with the RAMC until 1946, also seeing action in the [[Second World War]] in the Middle East and North West Europe; for the year 1945–46, he was Director of Pathology at the [[War Office]].<ref name="times" /><ref name=":0" />
After retiring from the Army with the rank of [[Brigadier]], he became Director of the [[Wellcome Laboratories of Tropical Medicine]], remaining in office until 1955. He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1958, appointed an Officer of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (OBE) in 1942, and a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] and of the [[Royal College of Physicians]] in 1951. He received honorary doctorates from the universities of [[University of Salford|Salford]] and Glasgow and the [[Manson Medal]] in 1968.<ref name="times" /><ref name=":0" />
He was married twice, firstly to Elizabeth Edgar from 1918 till her death in 1956, and secondly to Mary Murphy (daughter of D. H. Murphy) from 1957 until her death in 1968.<ref name="times">''The Times'' (London), 13 June 1981, p. 18.</ref><ref name=":0">[http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/ww1-biography/?id=1388 "Biography: Captain (Temporary Commission) John Smith Knox Boyd"], ''University of Glasgow''. Retrieved 8 January 2018.</ref>
The bacteria ''[[Shigella boydii]]'' is named after him.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Species: Shigella boydii |url=https://lpsn.dsmz.de/species/shigella-boydii |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=lpsn.dsmz.de |language=en}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
== Further reading == * P. O. Williams, "Boyd, Sir John Smith Knox (1891–1981)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 2004). * L. G. Goodwin, "John Smith Knox Boyd", ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society'', vol. 28 (November 1982), pp. 27–57. * ''The College Courant'', vol. 67, (1981), p. 37.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, John}} [[Category:1891 births]] [[Category:1981 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow]] [[Category:20th-century Scottish medical doctors]] [[Category:Royal Army Medical Corps officers]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Manson medal winners]] [[Category:People from Largs]] [[Category:Presidents of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene]] [[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]] [[Category:British Army brigadiers of World War II]] [[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]]