Sir Andrew Balfour KCMG CB (21 March 1873 – 30 January 1931) was a Scottish Medical Officer who specialised in tropical medicine.

In his youth Balfour was also a notable sportsman playing rugby union for Cambridge University in the Varsity Match and was selected to represent the Scotland national team.

[2] Within two years of leaving Edinburgh University, Balfour returned to education when he entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, as an advanced student.

[1] Balfour spent his time in Cambridge specialising in the prevention of disease, the field in which he would concentrate the rest of his medical career.

[2] He completed his MD in Edinburgh in 1898; his thesis on the toxicity of dyestuffs in relation to river pollution winning him the student gold medal.

[2] During his time in South Africa, he came under the influence of the prominent Scottish parasitologist Patrick Manson, and from this period he became an ardent student of tropical medicine.

[2]Balfour married in September 1902 to Grace, daughter of G. Nutter of Sidcup,[4] and the same year he was made the director of the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratory in Khartoum in Sudan where he also took up the post of Medical Officer of Health.

[2] During his time in Khartoum, he reduced deaths by malaria by 90 per cent through the removal of mosquito breeding grounds and improving the city's clean water systems and sanitation.

[2] His time in Africa also saw Balfour oversee the introduction of a floating laboratory, a gift from Dr Henry Wellcome to the Sudan Government.

This allowed the department to conduct scientific work in the upper reaches of the Nile, and aided the understanding of diseases of the blood.

[2] After returning to England he was given the role of scientific adviser to the Inspector Surgeon General of the British forces in East Africa.

[14] In the 1930 New Year Honours he was promoted KCMG, thus becoming Sir Andrew Balfour;[15] but was later admitted to Cassel Hospital in Penshurst, Kent to be treated for clinical depression.

[17] At the age of 22, he was placed into his favoured position in the pack, in a Scottish team that contained two fellow Watsonians, Harry Smith and Robin Welsh.

Despite the loss, Balfour would play in the remaining two games of the tournament, a scoreless draw away against Ireland and then an impressive win over England, which gave Scotland the Calcutta Cup for the fourth successive year.

[2] During the 1929/30 season, Balfour was made Vice-President of the Scottish Rugby Union, the President being Sir Augustus Asher.