John Alexander Sinton, MD FRS VC (1884-1956)

Brigadier John Sinton is the only individual in history to have been both awarded the Victoria Cross and also elected to the Royal Society. He qualified at Belfast and afterwards joined the Indian Medical Service (IMS). Serving before and during the Great War (1914-18), he was first posted to the North-West Frontier province, and afterwards as a captain in the Indian Expeditionary force in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). It was there in 1916 that, shot in both arms during an engagement and under heavy gunfire, he remained steadfastly at his post; for this bravery he received the Victoria Cross. Following the war he carried out major researches into malaria in India, and became Director of the Malaria Survey of India Both there and shortly afterwards, Sinton published about 200 papers on various aspects of malaria and leishmaniasis. In England, he later worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Ministry of Health's laboratory at Horton, Epsom. In 1946, he was elected to the Royal Society for his researches into malaria and kala-azar, and following retirement he underwent another distinguished career in Northern Ireland.