Sir David Weatherall was born on the 9th of March, 1933 in Liverpool. He studied at Calday Grange Grammar School and went on to do medicine at the University of Liverpool. He graduated in 1956 and after house staff training joined the army for two years, working in Singapore and Taiping, North Malaya. It was during these years that he first became interested in haemoglobin electrophoresis.
After his military service he took a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University where he continued to work on haemoglobin and thalassaemia. He eventually returned to Liverpool to work at the Royal Infirmary where he rose to the rank of Professor of Haematology. He has continued to work on thalassaemias throughout his life and is one of the world's experts on the clinical and molecular basis of these diseases and the application of this information for their control and prevention in developing countries.
Sir David was appointed the Nuffield Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford in 1974 and in 1992 he became the Regius Professor of Medicine, a chair he held until 2000, he is now Emeritus Regius Professor. He also founded the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford in 1989, remaining there until 2000, upon his retirement the institute was renamed the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in his honour. Sir David was knighted in 1987.
