David Willis Wilson Henderson

Born in Glasgow on 23 July 1903, Henderson subsequently attended the Hamilton Academy, described by Sir Tam Dalyell, former Father of the House of Commons, as "a remarkable school" with "a formidable academic reputation."^[3] Matriculating at the University of Glasgow, reading agricultural bacteriology and enrolling at the West of Scotland Agricultural College, Henderson graduated in 1926, subsequently being appointed a lecturer in bacteriology at King's College, Durham University, where, in 1930, he was awarded an MSc degree for his work on anaerobic infection in lambs. In the same year he married his first wife, Beatrice Mary Davenport Abell, daughter of Sir Westcott Abell, KBE, the celebrated naval architect and surveyor, and Professor of Naval Architecture at Armstrong College, an affiliated college of the University of Durham.^[1] In 1931, awarded a Carnegie Research Fellowship, Henderson embarked on research at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, London, and was subsequently awarded a Beit Memorial Research Fellowship for the years 1932–35. In 1934 Henderson was to be awarded a PhD from the University of London for his thesis, 'Studies on the spore-bearing anaerobes with experiments on active and passive immunity.'^[4]

Engaged in research work on immunology and the effects of the administering of toxins via aerosols at the Lister Institute's Serum Department at Elstree, by summer of 1940 Henderson was to find himself seconded to the Ministry of Supply and working between the Lister Institute and the government's Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment, at Porton Down in Wiltshire. In October 1940, on the instruction of the War Council a team of microbiologists was assembled, including David Henderson, to research use and protection against bacterial agents under the leadership of Paul Fildes. It was initially known as the Biology Department, Porton (BDP) and would later become the autonomous Microbiological Research Establishment. The same year Henderson was awarded a DSc degree by the University of London.

In 1943 Henderson was one of a team sent to the United States to advise on protection against biological warfare and for the remainder of the War was to continue his work on both sides of the Atlantic, for which work he was awarded in 1946 the US Medal of Freedom, Bronze Palm.^[1][5]