John Frederick Wilkinson

John Frederick "Wilkie" Wilkinson FRCP FRIC (10 June 1897, Oldham, Lancashire — 13 August 1998, Knutsford, Cheshire) was a chemist, physician, and pioneering haematologist.

His name was put forward for the ballot for the award of the Victoria Cross for his conduct on the Mole, part of the sea defence wall of Zeebrugge harbour.

[3]When WWI ended, Wilkinson resumed his study of chemistry at the Victoria University of Manchester, graduating in 1920 BSc with first class honours, in 1921 MSc, and in 1923 PhD.

During the Twenties he found buttons inconvenient on his motorcycling gear and had a zip incorporated into the design of his moleskin trousers, long before commercial manufacturers took up the idea.

[3] In 1926 George R. Minot and William P. Murphy published their famous paper on feeding raw liver to patients with pernicious anaemia.

Wilkinson demonstrated a relation between diet and haematinic activity in tissue by studying stomachs and livers from many species of animals at Manchester's Belle Vue Zoological Gardens and later at Chester Zoo.

[2] In 1964 in Bucklow, Cheshire, he married Marion Crossfield (1920–2003), a Major in the Women's Royal Army Corps, but they separated in the 1990s.