Gordon Hamilton Fairley - Life and Work

Life and Work

The son of a research worker in tropical diseases (Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley), Fairley grew up in Melbourne. He later studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, and St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Trained in hematology as Leverhulme Research Scholar at the Royal College of Physicians, he continued his research with an emphasis on immunohematology.

In 1968 he became director of the Clinical Research Unit at the Institute of Cancer Research. Two years afterward, he became director of the Medical Oncology Research Unit. In 1972 he was appointed Imperial Cancer Fund Professor of Oncology. As Professor of Medical Oncology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital he contributed a great deal to the chemotherapy and immunology of malignant disease, and, in particular, to the treatment of the malignant reticuloses.