Alfred William "Bill" Frankland MBE (19 March 1912 – 2 April 2020)[1] was a British allergist and immunologist[2] whose achievements included the popularisation of the pollen count as a piece of weather-related information to the British public, speculation regarding the effects of overly sterile living environments, and the prediction of increased levels of allergy to penicillin.

Henry Frankland, of North Yorkshire farming stock, who at the time of his son's birth was curate of St. Mark's, Little Common, near Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, and in later years was a vicar in Cumberland.

"[6] As a POW, he was forced to provide medical assistance for Japanese troops,[8] which Frankland believed saved his life.

St. Mary's Hospital employed a botanist to assist with collecting this information and to complement the work on pollen counts.

[10] Frankland was also a supporter of the idea of desensitisation, a technique that aims to reduce the level of immune response to allergens by repeated low doses of the substance to which the patient has an allergy.

He was assisted in this work by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, which was able to supply insects that Frankland could be sure he had never previously been exposed to.

The two had a daily meeting, but due to Fleming's lack of interest in clinical medicine, Frankland said that he could not recall a patient ever being discussed.

Contacted to visit a VIP in Baghdad having trouble with asthma, Frankland advised Hussein this was not the case and to give up his habit of 40 cigarettes a day.

Frankland said that "To my lasting regret, I told him that was his trouble and that if he carried on, in another two years he wouldn't be head of state.

After retiring from Guy's he continued to participate in academic life by attending conferences and publishing articles in journals.

The accused had claimed that a vehicle crash in which he was involved was caused by his losing control following a bee sting.

[22] Also that year he appeared in an episode of the BBC 2 television series Britain's Greatest Generation,[23] and was the oldest ever guest on Desert Island Discs.

The speakers at the Association's inaugural meeting included Sir Henry Dale, pharmacologist and chairman of the board at the Wellcome Trust, and Dr. John Freeman.