[1] He was born in Greenock on 24 August 1906, the son of Thomas Walmsley, a marine engineer living at 59 South Street.
He carried out this research as a Rockefeller scholar at the Carnegie Institute of Embryology in Baltimore, supervised by George L. Streeter, and on the Pacific coast of Canada.
In the Second World War he served as a pathologist with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the Middle East, rising to the rank of Major.
His proposers were James Couper Brash, Alexander Murray Drennan, Guy Frederic Marrian, John Gaddum and Thomas Mackie.
On his retirement, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc) by the University of St Andrews and appointed Professor Emeritus.