Sir John Wenman Crofton (27 March 1912 – 3 November 2009[1]) was a pioneer in the treatment of tuberculosis, who also spent the better part of his life raising awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco.
[3] In 1930 Crofton matriculated at Sidney Sussex College in the University of Cambridge, eventually earning an MB in 1937 and MD in 1947.
During his studies he was a keen rock-climber, making frequent expeditions to the Scottish Highlands, and pioneering a number of climbs, one of which (the Cumming-Crofton route on Mitre Ridge in the Cairngorms) still bears his name.
[3] He then signed up with the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in France, in Egypt with periods in Greece and Eritrea, and from 1942 to 1944 in Malta.
He was then granted home leave and took up a posting in Northern Ireland, where he met his future wife, Eileen, also a qualified doctor.
[4] The essence of the method was the use of multiple drugs taken simultaneously to reduce the chance for drug-resistant strains of the tubercle bacilli to develop, this combined with careful monitoring of patients to ensure that they adhered to the prescribed medication regime.
The incidence of tuberculosis in Edinburgh declined rapidly, and Crofton spent much of the rest of his career travelling around the UK and the wider world attempting to get this message across.
In this he worked closely with his wife Eileen, who from 1972 headed the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) organisation in Scotland.