LOOKING a bit nervous up there, isn’t he? I could be wrong, but the lads at the front look as though they are just holding on for show and want to be in the picture while the heavy lifting is being done by those behind them.
This is Sir Alexander Fleming, one of the greatest Scots ever to have a huge impact on the world, in 1952 taking over as Rector of Edinburgh University.
Yet again we discover that students in those days were actually louts, and the ceremony began with tomatoes being thrown and raucous students blowing trumpets and whistles, so that Sir Alexander had to cut short his address.
Sir Alexander, from Darvel in Ayrshire, was the son of a farmer, and thanks to money left by an uncle was able to attend medical school in London. His hobby was shooting, and the captain of the medical school’s rifle club persuaded Alexander to stay on as an assistant bacteriologist so he could remain in the team.
It was there he noticed a fungus on a culture he had left on a bench, and after studying it realised its potential – and had found the antibiotic he called penicillin which would go on to save millions of lives.
Here, though, he just seems to be hoping to save his own life if that chair he is on gets couped over.
He was led out onto the streets where a large crowd had gathered to cheer him. Incidentally, he beat the Aga Khan in the student vote. Is it just me, or are rectors not as grand as that these days?
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