Sir James W. Black

Sir James W. Black was twice married. His first marriage was to Hilary Joan Vaughan in 1946. The couple had a happy marriage that produced one daughter and lasted 40 years. His wife died in 1986. He later married Professor Rona MacKie in 1994.

He suffered from ill health during his last years and died on 22 March 2010, at the age of 85.

James Whyte Black was born on 14 June 1924, in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, Scotland, into a staunch Baptist home. He had four brothers and his father was a mining engineer.

He had a happy childhood and grew up to be a carefree boy with no serious ambitions. He attended Beath High School where his teacher, Dr. Waterson, persuaded him to take the competitive entrance examination for St Andrews University. An intelligent boy, he managed to earn the Patrick Hamilton Residential Scholarship.

He chose to study medicine and matriculated at University College (which eventually became the University of Dundee) in 1943. Until 1967, University College was the site for all clinical medical activity for the University of St Andrews. He went on to graduate from University of St Andrews School of Medicine with an MB ChB in 1946.

By the time of his graduation from medical school, he was convinced that he did not want to practice medicine. Thus, he stayed at the University College for a short while as an assistant lecturer.

He moved to Singapore in 1947 and accepted a position as a Lecturer at the King Edward VII College of Medicine. After three years, he went to London where he met Professor R.C. Garry who helped him in getting an appointment at the University of Glasgow (Veterinary School).

The post was a challenging one and Black proceeded to establish the Physiology Department from scratch. During this time, he also built a research laboratory providing the most advanced cardiovascular technology and developed an interest in the effects of the hormone adrenaline on the human heart.

In 1958, he joined ICI Pharmaceuticals. His years with the company were very exciting and led to some extraordinary discoveries in medical science. He collaborated with scientists in his team to develop propranolol which is a beta blocker used for the treatment of heart disease. The discovery of propranolol is considered one of the greatest breakthroughs in the treatment of heart disease.

Along with the development of propranolol, James W. Black was also working on developing a similar method of treatment for stomach ulcers. However, ICI was not interested in pursuing research in this direction. Thus, Black resigned in 1964 and joined Smith, Kline and French.

Sir James W. Black developed propranolol, the beta adrenergic receptor antagonist used in treatment of heart disease. His discovery of the drug is considered one of the greatest breakthroughs in heart disease treatments and is counted amongst the most important contributions to medical science and pharmacology of the 20th century.