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108107
Captain
Alfred William Frankland MBE
Known as Bill
1912/03/19 - Born Battle, Bexhill, Sussex
Son of Rev. Harry Frankland and Rose (nee West) Frankland
Younger twin brother of John Ashlin Frankland.
The family moved to Penrith as Alfred’s father became the Vicar of Dacre in the Lake District. In WWI his father served in France as an Army Chaplain. On hi return in 1923 he became Vicar at Hesketh in Cumberland.
Both boys attended the preparatory Rossall School, Carlisle Grammar School and then St Bees School as a boarder.
Dr Alfred William Frankland, known as ‘Bill’ to many who knew him personally attended The Queen’s College, Oxford after winning a scholarship in 1930 , where he read medicine and upon leaving, went to do clinical work at St. Mary’s Hospital, London.
Bachelor of Medicine
Occupation Doctor
1939/11/08 - Enlisted
Royal Army Medical Corps
Service
1939 to 1941 Bill was placed at Tidworth, Wiltshire and attached to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
1941 - Married Pauline M Jackson at Amersham, Buckinghamshire
Late 1941 - After a swift course in tropical medicine Bill was transported on a two month voyage to Singapore.
Posted to 32 Company Tanglin Military Hospital, Singapore
1942/02/15 - Singapore surrendered to the Japanese
1942/04/10 - WO417/2, Casualty List No.794. Missing
1942/12/30 - WO417/004, Casualty List No. 1019. Previously shown on Casualty List No. 794 as reported Missing, 15/02/1942. Now a Prisoner of War.
Japanese PoW
1942/02/15 - Captured
PoW No. I 219
Changi - Roberts Hospital
In a Rugby match at Changi, Bill captained his team and the opposition captain was the Australian doctor Ernest ‘Weary’ Dunlop. Two men who would make names for themselves as doctors.
(Dr Frankland’s PoW records name him as Arthur and not Alfred)
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
1943/11/05 - Blakang Mati Island (now called Santosa)
New PoW No. 386
Food was sparse with tropical diseases, beriberi, dengue fever, malaria and dysentery. The brutality included beatings by the guards, one of which knocked Bill unconscious.
Knowledge of the Allied progress was learned from a secret radio, so the prisoners knew the war had ended before the Japanese guards, but they still had to be very careful. Radio’s carried the death penalty in the camps.
Liberated Blakang Mati, Singapore
Repatriation
1945/08/21 - Left Blakang Mati for Singapore. He was then flown via Penang to Rangoon where he was treated for an enlarged Spleen.
On the troop ship home they stopped at Port Said in the Suez Canal were they were kited out. While talking to a nurse and she realised he used to be at St Mary’s Hospital, she told him they had developed a new drug called Penicillin. Bill finally made it home in November 1945. By 1946 he had returned to St Mary’s Hospital.
1945/09/27 - WO417/9, Casualty List No. 1869. Previously reported on Casualty List No. 1019 as Prisoner of War now Not Prisoner of War. Previous Theatre of War, Malaya.
Post War
by
The Anaphylaxis Campaign
Throughout his life, Dr. Frankland worked to improve the lives of others and became a pioneer for allergy research. The Campaign is proud to have had Dr Frankland’s support since it was founded in 1994.
He had many achievements which benefited so many people globally, including bringing the pollen count to public attention and working as an assistant to Alexander Fleming, who famously discovered penicillin.
In 1946 Dr Frankland returned to the Allergy Department at St. Mary’s Hospital. It was there that he responded to an advertisement for a part-time role in the Department of Allergic Disorders with The Wright-Fleming Institute. There he worked in special clinics focusing on seasonal hayfever and Dr Frankland and his colleagues undertook a series of trials that proved that antihistamines neither helped nor increased pollen asthma (Frankland and Gorrill, 1955).
In 1962 he became Director of the Allergy Department at St Mary’s and undertook research into insect allergy and latex allergy, amongst other related conditions.
For over 50 years, Dr Frankland spearheaded research into allergic conditions and made significant contributions to a number of organisations, including the British Allergy Society and The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Even after turning 100, Dr Frankland continued to work and even commented on clinical papers for the Campaign.
Known as the Grandfather of allergy, Dr Frankland continued to publish and participate in scientific debate well past his 100th birthday, and was made an MBE for allergy research at the age of 103.
Dr Frankland died aged 108 on 2nd April 2020 .
He will be deeply missed by everyone at The Anaphylaxis Campaign and their thoughts are with his loved ones at this difficult time.
Lynne Regent, Chief Executive Officer of the Anaphylaxis Campaign, says:
“All of us at the Anaphylaxis Campaign will miss Bill very much. He was a great supporter of our charity and took his role as Honorary President very seriously. He was always ready to help us in our work to provide accurate meaningful information to those with severe allergies . He also retained a lovely sense of humour and curiosity which was great to witness. We extend our deepest sympathy to his family.”
Ronnie Taylor:- I would also like to add my own personal thanks to Dr Frankland who has helped my condition. Having been hospitalised with Pleurisy, it was later established that the initial infection was most likely caused by hayfever which I got every year especially while travelling the Moselle in Germany with the grape vines, our favourite holiday destination. Since then I now take a hayfever tablet every day and my hayfever is now under control. - My own personal thanks to Dr Frankland’s work in allergies.
Information
The Anaphylaxis Campaign
Liberation Questionnaire - COFEPOW
‘Fight the Good Fight’ by John Bloom
KEW Files:- WO 361/2180, WO 361/2059, WO 392/24, WO 367/1, WO 345/19, WO 361/1946,
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