Peter Medawar

He married Jean Shingle-wood Taylor in February 1937 and had four children from the marriage.

He suffered his first stroke in 1969 while delivering a speech which left him paralyzed. He had many more strokes after that.

Peter Medawar died of a stroke in London, UK, on October 2, 1987.

Peter Medawar was born in Petropolis, 40 miles from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on February 28, 1915. His father, Nicholas Agnatius Medawar, was a Lebanese salesman while his mother was an English woman named Edith Muriel Dowling.

He was the second child of his parents. His elder brother was Phillip.

When his family moved to England, he attended the ‘Marlborough College’ from 1928 to 1932 where he developed a passion for biology.

He received his first class bachelor’s degree in zoology from the ‘Magdalen College, Oxford’ in 1935.

In 1935 he was appointed a ‘Christopher Welch Scholar and Senior Demonstrator’ at the ‘Magdalen College’.

Peter Medawar worked at ‘Sir William Dunn School of Pathology’ for some time after receiving his bachelor’s degree.

In 1935 he was appointed as a ‘Christopher Welch Scholar and Senior Demonstrator’ at the ‘Magdalen College’.

His first scientific work on connective tissue cells was carried out in 1937 but was not given much appreciation though it had a lot of influence on his later experiments.

He was elected as ‘Fellow of Magdalen’ in 1938 which continued up to 1944.

He remained at Oxford all through the Second World War, became a ‘Rolleston Prizeman’ in 1942, a ‘Senior Research Fellow of St. John’s College’ and a demonstrator of zoology at the university in 1944.

Peter Medawar published ‘The Uniqueness of the Individual’ in 1957 followed by ‘The Future of Man’ in 1959.

His next work ‘The Art of the Soluble’ came out in 1967 while “The Hope of Progress’, ‘The Life Science’ and ‘Pluto’s Republic’ were published in 1972, 1977 and 1982 respectively.

He brought out his autobiography ‘Memoir of a Thinking Radish’ in 1986.