March 11th, 1951
Sir Alexander Fleming (August 06, 1881 – March 11, 1955) was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He discovered the enzyme lysozyme and isolated the antibiotic substance penicillin from the fungus Penicillium notatum, for which he shared a Nobel Prize.
The popular story of Winston Churchills fathers paying for Flemings education after Flemings father saved young Winston from death is certainly false. According to the biography, Penicillin Man: Alexander Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution by Kevin Brown, Alexander Fleming is quoted as saying that this was a wonderful fable. Nor did he save Winston Churchill himself during WWII. Churchill was saved by Lord Moran, using sulphonamides, since he had no experience with penicillin, when Churchill fell ill in Carthage in Tunisia in 1943. The Daily Telegraph and The Morning Post on 21 December 1943 wrote that he had been saved by penicillin. It is probable that, as sulphonamides were a German discovery, and there was a war with the Germans, the patriotic pride in the miracle cure of penicillin had something to do with this error in reporting.
