Dr Bill Frankland: ‘The Grandfather of Allergy’
Honouring Scientists from Imperial College London
Dr ‘Bill’ Frankland MBE DM FRCP
Pioneering immunologist, the “Grandfather of Allergy” dies at the age of 108.
Born in 1912, William (‘Bill’) Frankland is the allergist who invested the pollen count. Dr Frankland’s interest in allergies was established as a child. At a young age he contracted tuberculosis; later, he then cared for his elder sister who suffered and died from scarlet fever. These early events defined his future and education, inspiring him to study medicine. He graduated from St Mary’s hospital, Paddington, London, and qualified as a doctor in 1938.
1940
Early in his career Bill Frankland demonstrated that antihistamines (used to treat hay fever) were not effective against asthma. World War II took him to Singapore where, in 1942, he saved the lives of many nurses during an attack on the city. After Singapore, Bill was imprisoned in Japan. After the war he returned to St Mary’s hospital in London where he trained and spent two years as a clinical assistant to Sir Alexander Fleming.
1950
Using clinical trials, Dr Frankland purified a pollen protein in 1953-1954. His interest in all types of allergies and allergens led him to self-experiment and in 1955 allowed a South American insect to bite him eight times to observe an allergic response. Instead, he self-induced, an almost fatal anaphylactic reaction and saved only by injections of adrenaline.
Long career
Dr Frankland treated many patients in his career including, in 1979, Saddam Hussein. A heavy cigarette smoker having trouble with asthma Dr Frankland told him: “If you’re not eating, sleeping or praying, you’re smoking. If you carry on, you won’t be president in two years’ time.”Saddam heeded the advice and later flew the doctor to Baghdad, Iraq for a celebratory lunch.[1]
In 2018, the scientific journal Allergy identified Bill’s 1954 work in immunotherapy as one of the four seminal papers in allergy of the 20thCentury.[2] It was also in 1954 that Dr Frankland pioneered the development and publication of the pollen count, such that it is now an integral part of weather forecasts during the spring and summer.
After 30 years, Frankland left medical practice at St Mary’s. But He continued to work well into his 90s as a consultant and expert at Guy’s hospital, London. He remained active and agile all his life. In March 2020, on his 108thbirthday, Dr Frankland attended a public event on the medical aspects of captivity in the Far East and granted an interview in which he shared his view on the current pandemic. He added his own recollections of the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-1920 when he was just a boy of seven years old. Dr Franklin died from covid19 on the 2nd of April 2020.[3]
Written & distributed by: Dr Elizabeth Dubois, WHO Senior Research Associate
Image source : Paul Watkins From Hell Island to Hay Fever , Walker2721, Dave Guttridge.
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/20/william-frankland-obituary
[2]https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/196715/obituary-dr-bill-frankland-mbe-dm/
[3]Illman, John (2020). "William Frankland: the "grandfather of allergy"". BMJ. 369. doi:10.1136/bmj.m1717.