Nuttall, George (1862-1937), bacteriologist and Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge

• George Henry Falkiner Nuttall, ScD, FRS (1862 - 1937)

George Nuttall was born in San Francisco, California, and was the second son of Robert Kennedy Nuttall MD, from Tittour, co. Wicklow, and his wife, Magdalena. In 1865 the family returned to Europe, and the children were educated in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland and as a result Nuttall could speak several languages. He returned to America in 1878 and entered the University of California, where he proceeded MD in 1884. Between 1886 and 1891 he studied botany and zoology in Germany. He spent further time studying in America and Germany before giving a course of lectures on bacteriology in Cambridge in 1899.

In 1901 was appointed University Lecturer in bacteriology and preventive medicine and in the same year founded the Journal of Hygiene which he edited up to the time of his death. In 1908 he founded Parasitology, which he edited until 1933.

In 1906 he was elected the first Quick Professor of Biology at Cambridge (1906 - 1931). In 1907 he became a professorial Fellow at Magdalene in succession to Alfred Newton.

He was the founder of the Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology (later known as the Molteno Institute of Biology and Parasitology), which was formally opened in 1921.

Nuttall resigned the Quick Professorship in 1931 and became Emeritus Professor of Biology.

In 1895 he had married Paula and they had two sons and a daughter. His hobby was heraldry. He died suddenly on 16 December 1937.

Arms in Hall glass, W2

Further Reading: College Magazine, Vol. X, No. 9, December 1938 'George Henry Falkiner Nuttall' by A. S. Ramsey and David Keilin

Arms in Hall glass, W2.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography