Abstract
ON October 6 the Earl of Athlone, Chancellor of the University of London, unveiled a memorial tablet to the late Sir Andrew Balfour, first director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in the entrance hall of the School. The tablet, which is of polished Roman stone with a bas-relief head in bronze, is the visible part of a twofold memorial, the other purpose being a scheme to enable students, preferably those from overseas, to pursue courses of study at the School. At the ceremony the Chancellor paid a well-deserved tribute to Sir Andrew and his world-wide work in the cause of tropical medicine and public health. Referring to the organisation of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine he said: “To that work which was, alas, to prove the last of his labours—the building, the equipment, the organisation of this great School—Andrew Balfour brought the same passionate zeal, the same untiring energy which were characteristic of his whole career, and his inspiring personality is so very fresh in the minds of all of you that of his last great piece of work there is hardly any need to speak. The appointment of Andrew Balfour to be the first Director of this School gave to the School from its very inception a splendid introduction throughout the whole world and contributed perhaps more than anything else to the reputation which it has already established. Finally, and in a word, Balfour was a great Empire builder; and when I say this I am thinking not so much of his devotion to work, of his vast knowledge and contributions to the subject of Empire health, not of his academic distinctions, not of his contributions to sport and literature, but of his fine character. He was without guile, honest to the core, a man who evoked in his colleagues a spirit of love and sacrifice.” B It is fitting that the memorial tablet bears the quotation from Walt Whitman which Balfour himself loved:
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Memorial to the Late Sir Andrew Balfour. Nature 130, 574 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130574b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130574b0