Former Pupil Biographies

John Maxwell Anderson CHM, FRCS, FRCSED (1928 - 1982)

John Maxwell Anderson was a Scottish consultant surgeon and cancer specialist whose research focused on tissue transplantation, cancer immunology and chemotherapy. He was born in 1928 and educated at Madras College, St Andrews, and Strathallan School. He graduated MB, ChB from St Andrews University in 1952 and proceeded ChM in 1972 and MD in 1975.

After National Service in the RAF he had a varied postgraduate training. In 1959 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCSED). In 1960 he was appointed senior registrar to Professor Ian Aird at Hammersmith Hospital, after which he went to Harvard Medical School and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, where he did valuable original research work. In 1966 John was appointed consultant surgeon in the professorial surgical unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and he continued on the full-time hospital staff until his untimely death. Inevitably he retained a major interest in research work mainly directed towards tissue transplantation, immunology in cancer, and chemotherapy. With the help of grants from the Wolfson Foundation he established a research laboratory in which he continued his work, and his contributions to medical journals and meetings were numerous. The Royal Infirmary surgical club was founded just after the last war, and as the founder members retired and younger men took charge he assumed the duties of convener and secretary and by his active endeavours sustained and enhanced the functions of the club.

John Anderson was a retiring, cultured, and well-bred man with a quiet sense of humour. Not given to ostentation, he was perhaps more content and happy in his family circle and in the company of one or two of his closer friends. He is survived by his wife Susan and two young daughters Lucy and Harriet.

Mr J M Anderson, consultant general surgeon at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, died with tragic suddenness after an accident at his home on 31 January.

Anderson's grandfather, Jamie Anderson, won The Open Championship in three consecutive years between 1877 and 1879.