Topley, Professor William Whiteman Carlton FRCP, FRS (1886-1944), bacteriologist

Topley was an epidemiologist and bacteriologist. He qualified in medicine from St Thomas's Hospital in 1911 and was Director of the Pathological Department at Charing Cross Hospital from 1911-1922. During the First World War Topley served as a bacteriologist on the British Sanitary Commission, including during the typhus epidemic in Serbia. In 1922 he became Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Manchester, a position he held until 1927 when he was appointed the first Professor of Bacteriology and Immunology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Topley was best known for his work on experimental epidemiology and microbial diseases. In 1929 he co-authored, with Graham Wilson, The Principles of Bacteriology and Immunity which became a standard text on the subject. In 1939 Topley organised the Emergency Public Health Laboratory Service and in 1941 became Secretary to the Agricultural Research Council. He died in 1944.