Frank AlexanderFRSE MRCVS (18 March 1917 – 4 March 1998) was an English veterinarian who served as Dean of theDick Vet School, Edinburgh from 1970 to 1974.
Alexander was born on 18 March 1917, the son of Sydney Alexander inNew Mills,Cheshire (now part ofDerbyshire). He was educated atFurness Vale Primary School thenBuxton College from 1927 to 1935. In 1935, he began studies at theDick Vet school inEdinburgh.
In 1940, Alexander was elected a Member of theRoyal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He then undertook a postgraduate degree inPharmacology at theUniversity of Edinburgh funded by the Agricultural Research Council, underAlfred Joseph Clark. His PhD thesis was one of the world's first studies onpharmacokinetics (January 1944). Clark died during his supervision of Alexander and was replaced by SirJohn Gaddum.[1]
In February 1944, during theWorld War II Alexander joined theRoyal Army Veterinary Corps and served in the Middle East. In 1945 this placed him to take on the chair in Pharmacology at theAmerican University of Beirut inLebanon. In 1947 he returned to the UK and the Dick Vet School to study thephysiology of theequine digestive system. He also did work for theRowett Research Institute inAberdeen underSir David Cuthbertson. In 1952, he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Pharmacology at the Dick Vet, which by then was part of the University of Edinburgh.
In 1961, Alexander was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh.[2] In 1968 Alexander was made Professor of Veterinary Pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh. He delivered the Sir Frederick Smith Lecture for that year. In 1970 he was promoted to Dean of the Veterinary Faculty at the University, then based at Summerhall, replacingAlexander Robertson.
Alexander retired in 1984 and was succeeded as Dean byAinsley Iggo. He died in Edinburgh on 4 March 1998 aged 80.
Alexander was one of twenty "shadow portraits" created in the Summerhall building of the college, depicting former Principals. The portraits are now in the Easter Bush buildings.[3]
He was married to Peggy Reedie (d. 1984). They had no children.
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