David Willis Wilson Henderson

David Willis Wilson Henderson CB FRS[1] (23 July 1903 – 16 August 1968) was a Scottish-born microbiologist; a former president of the Society for General Microbiology and recipient of the US Medal of Freedom.

[2] 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.

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.

[1][5] In January 1946 Henderson had succeeded Fildes at Porton Down as director of the renamed microbiological research department and an advisory panel had been assembled by the Ministry of Supply under the chairmanship of Maurice Hankey.

[1] Henderson's first wife died in 1952 and in the following year he married Emily Helen Kelly of New York, a bacteriologist who had been his assistant in the USA during the War.