Wilfred Watkins-Pitchford

Abstract

Wilfred Watkins-Pitchford, bacteriologist and pioneer of medical research in South Africa, was a younger brother of veterinarian Herbert Watkins-Pitchford. He was born on the 4th of June 1868 in Tattenhall, Cheshire, England and died on the 29th of September 1952 in Wolverhampton, Shropshire, England. In 1900-1901, during the Anglo-boer War (1899-1902), he came to South Africa as bacteriologist to No. 7 General Military Hospital in Escourt, Natal. In 1902 Watkins-Pitchford accepted an appointment as assistant bacteriologist under his brother Herbert, who was then government veterinary bacteriologist of Natal and director of the Allerton Laboratory in Pietermaritzburg. In addition to routine work for various government departments Wilfred assisted his brother in research on various human and stock diseases, including horsesickness, quarter evil, bubonic plague, bluetongue, and East Coast fever. Following the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 Watkins-Pitchford was transferred to Johannesburg in 1911 as government pathologist and bacteriologist for the Transvaal Province, serving also as honorary pathologist to the Johannesburg General Hospital. In Septermber 1913 Watkins-Pitchford was appointed as the first director of the newly establshed South African Institute for Medical Research. The institute was founded to conduct research into the prevention and control of human diseases, particularly those affecting workers in the mining industry. When the Medical School was established at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1922 Watkins-Pitchford accepted a part-time appointment as honorary professor and head of the Department of Bacteriology and Pathology. (Source: S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=3057)