| Administrative History | John Boyd Orr (later Sir John Boyd Orr) was the founding Director of the Rowett Institute. He was born in Ayrshire in 1880. He was undoubtedly one of the great Scots of the last century. John Boyd Orr was the founding father of modern nutrition science and his achievements were outstanding. He was the first scientist to show that there was a link between poverty, poor diet and ill health. In 1936 he showed that at least one third of the UK population were so poor that they couldn't afford to buy sufficient food to provide a healthy diet. Among his many research findings was the demonstration of the nutritional benefits in young children of drinking milk - a result which led to the introduction of free school milk. The landmark Carnegie Survey of Diet and Health in Pre-War Britain, which Boyd Orr masterminded, was used by the UK Government to help formulate the food ration during World War II. When Boyd Orr retired from the Institute in 1945, he embarked on another career as the first Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Among his many awards he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1949, the same year as he was knighted. He died in 1971 at his home in Brechin.
See also:
Food Health and Income (1936)
Feeding The People In War-Time (with David Lubbock) (1940)
As I Recall: the 1880s-1960s (autobiography 1966) |