Brigadier Sir John Smith Knox Boyd (18 September 1891 – 10 June 1981)[1][2] was a Scottish bacteriologist and a senior officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).

[3] Boyd was born in Largs, Ayrshire,[4] to John Knox Boyd, a bank agent, and his wife Margaret Wilson Smith, the younger Boyd attended Largs Academy before studying medicine at Glasgow University under Sir Robert Muir and Carl Browning.

He came top in his year, securing the Brunton Medal, when he graduated MB ChB in 1913 (he subsequently secured the Diploma in Public Health (DPH) from Cambridge in 1924 and the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Glasgow in 1948) and joined the RAMC the following year, serving in France, Belgium and Salonika in the First World War.

[3][5] After retiring from the Army with the rank of Brigadier, he became Director of the Wellcome Laboratories of Tropical Medicine, remaining in office until 1955.

He received honorary doctorates from the universities of Salford and Glasgow and the Manson Medal in 1968.