Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley (15 July 1891 – 19 April 1966) was an Australian physician, medical scientist, and army officer who was instrumental in saving thousands of Allied lives from malaria and other diseases.

A graduate of the University of Melbourne, where he was resident of Ormond College, Fairley joined the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1915.

In the South West Pacific Area, Fairley became responsible for co-ordinating the activities of all allied forces in the fight against malaria and other tropical diseases.

A serious illness in 1948 forced him to resign his professorship, but he retained his practice and membership of numerous committees, becoming an "elder statesman" of tropical medicine.

He investigated an epidemic of meningitis that was occurring in local Army camps,[4] and his first published paper was an analysis of this disease, documenting fifty cases.

[6] For his services in the First World War, Fairley was mentioned in despatches[14] and made an Officer of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire.

[16]Fairley was one of a number of AIF officers granted leave "to visit various hospitals in the United Kingdom so that they become conversant with the latest developments in the medical sciences".

On arrival in India, he found that the scheme had been abandoned and that as his appointment could be terminated at six-months' notice, he would no longer be required after October 1922.

Fairley demanded and received an audience with the Governor of Bombay, Sir George Lloyd, the result of which was that the Secretary of State agreed to create a special five-year post of Medical Officer of the Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory and Honorary Consulting Physician to the Sir Jamshedjee Jeejebhoy Hospital and St George Hospital.

He worked there for two years, collaborating with the new director, Charles Kellaway in studies of snake venoms and with Harold Dew on the development of diagnostic tests for echinococcosis.

This work involved numerous milkings to establish typical and maximal venom yields, innovative studies of snake dentition using wax moulds, and detailed dissections to describe each species' biting apparatus.

[21][22][23] Fairley furthermore undertook in vivo studies of envenomation in a range of large animal species, to determine the efficacy of prevailing first-aid measures.

Although he and Kellaway convinced the governors to delay Fairley's commencement until their major venom work was completed, he departed for London by the end of that year.

[28] As the British Army in the Middle East had no consulting physician in tropical diseases, Fairley accepted an offer to act in this capacity as well.

Drawing on the experience of the Salonika front in the First World War, where very heavy casualties suffered from malaria, plus Fairley's more recent experience in that part of the world, they painted a gloomy picture, emphasising the grave risks, and going so far as to suggest that the Germans might attempt to entice the allies into a summer campaign in which they could be destroyed by malaria.

Although 20 long tons (20 t) of quinine was loaded on board, it was apparently unloaded when the ship stopped at Tjilatjap, possibly due to fifth columnists.

[6] In General Sir Thomas Blamey's reorganisation of the Australian Army in April 1942, Fairley was appointed director of medicine at Allied Land Forces Headquarters (LHQ) in Melbourne.

Despite the experience with malaria in the Middle East, most of the troops had a poor understanding of anti-malaria precautions and few medical officers had encountered the disease.

In bringing the problem to the attention of the highest allied military and civil authorities overseas, he lifted the global profile and priority of malaria control measures.

[44] As "one of the reasons for the lamentable record in malaria control in 1942 and early 1943 was the absence of medical authority at the level of the theatre commander's headquarters",[45] Fairley suggested that there be a body responsible for co-ordinating the activities of all allied forces in the South West Pacific Area.

MacArthur, who had himself suffered an attack of malaria back in 1904 (and a serious relapse the next year),[47] created the Combined Advisory Committee on Tropical Medicine, Hygiene and Sanitation with Colonel Fairley as its chairman in March 1943.

The committee proceeded to make a series of recommendations regarding training, discipline, equipment, procedures and priorities, which then went out as GHQ orders to all commands.

The drug is also a dye, and had the known side effect of making the skin and eyeballs of the user go yellow in colour after repeated use but this was an acceptable drawback in wartime.

In particular, he was interested in the possibility that sulphaguanidine (or a related sulphonamide) might be a causal prophylactic against malaria, as they could be manufactured in Australia, unlike atebrin and plasmoquine.

[51] Fairley travelled to New Guinea at the end of June 1943 and arranged for Plasmodium falciparum cases to be evacuated to Cairns for treatment.

As the flight time from Port Moresby to Cairns was only a few hours, this was considered safe, but since the disease can be fatal if not treated promptly, Fairley was concerned lest the cases be delayed for some reason.

[52] The LHQ Medical Research Unit used human test subjects, all volunteers drawn from the Australian Army, including a small but notable group of 'Dunera Boys' (Jewish refugees) from the 8th Employment Company.

[60] Using draconian drills that required officers to place atebrin tablets in their men's mouths, the army attempted to reduce the incidence of malaria to zero.

Fairley was urgently recalled from a tour of South East Asia Command and given orders by General Blamey to personally proceed to Wewak and investigate the situation.

A special section was formed from the LHQ Medical Research Unit to assist the 6th Division and certain relapsing personnel were evacuated to Cairns.