{{Short description|British pathologist (1878–1945)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = William Cramer | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1878|6|2|df=y}} | birth_place = Germany | fields = Pathologist | death_date = {{death date and age|1945|8|10|1878|6|2|df=y}} | death_place = Denver, Colorado | workplaces = University of Edinburgh<br>Imperial Cancer Research Fund<br>Washington University School of Medicine | alma_mater = Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | doctoral_advisor = <!--please insert--> | known_for = Pathologist at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund | footnotes = }}

'''William Cramer''' FRSE (2 June 1878, Germany &ndash; 10 August 1945, Denver, CO, US) was a British pathologist and physiologist, best known for his work with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

==Biography== William Cramer was born in Germany on 2 June 1878.<ref name=Biography>''British physiologists 1885-1914: a biographical dictionary,'' Manchester University Press ND, 1991, p394-5</ref> He received his first tertiary education at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München<ref name=Obituary>"William Cramer, D.Sc., Ph.D., M.R.C.S.," ''The British Medical Journal,'' Vol. 2, No. 4417 (Sep. 1, 1945), p. 304</ref> and received his Ph.D. at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin in 1901.<ref name=Obituary/> He achieved his D.Sc. at the University of Edinburgh in 1908,<ref name=Obituary/> during which time he had worked under Swale Vincent.<ref name=BMJ>C. Lovatt Evans (1934) "T. Swale Vincent, M.D., D.Sc., Ll.D. Formerly Professor Of Physiology, University Of London," ''The British Medical Journal,'' Vol. 1, No. 3810 (Jan. 13, 1934), pp. 83-84</ref> Cramer took the English Conjoint qualification after nine years as a chemical physiology lecturer at Edinburgh.<ref name=Obituary/> He had worked briefly for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in 1904;<ref name=Biography/> he rejoined the organisation in 1914.<ref name=Obituary/>

In 1907, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, Francis H A Marshall, Alexander Crum Brown and James Cossar Ewart.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |title=Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) |author=C D Waterston |author2=A Macmillan Shearer |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=090219884X |date=July 2006 |access-date=18 September 2015 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Cramer became a naturalised British citizen. He was elected a Foreign Member of the German Society for the Investigation of Cancer.<ref name=Obituary/> In 1933, he was an official British delegate at the International Cancer Congress in Madrid,<ref name=Obituary/> and again in 1934 at the International Cancer Research conference in Paris.<ref name=Obituary/> In 1939, after 25 years with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Cramer relocated to St. Louis, Missouri,<ref name=Obituary/> where he was head pathologist at the Barnard Skin and Cancer Hospital,<ref name=Obituary/> and a research associate at Washington University.<ref name=Obituary/>

Throughout his career, Cramer authored numerous papers on cancer, physiology, and biochemistry.<ref name=Obituary/> His textbook, ''Practical Course in Chemical Physiology,'' had reached its fourth edition by 1920.<ref name=Obituary/> Cramer belonged to the Physiological Society, the Pathological Society, and the Biochemical Society.<ref name=Obituary/>

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cramer, William}} Category:1878 births Category:1945 deaths Category:LMU Munich alumni Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:British pathologists Category:German emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Washington University School of Medicine faculty