Lives, Laboratories, and the Translations of War: British Medical Scientists, 1914 and Beyond

The traditional assumption that ‘war is good for medicine’ has generally been debated by examining specific medical innovations of the war years 1914–18.This paper focuses rather on the ways in which war affected the medical careers of those working in British microbiology before and after the Great War. Using a survey of the lives of medical scientists associated with The Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine, the British Pathological Society, and the Pathological Laboratory of St Bartholomew's Hospital, this paper argues the case for war-related medical research of 1914–19 as a driver both for the creation of a knowledge base for future research and for changes in career trajectory of a number of individuals who were subsequently important for the scientific development of different areas of epidemiology, microbiology, and nutrition science after 1920.