William MacGregor Henderson

Who was William MacGregor Henderson?

Sir William MacGregor Henderson FRS FRSE PZS was a Scottish veterinary expert on foot and mouth disease. He was also President of the Zoological Society of London, 1984–1989.

Henderson was born in Edinburgh in 1913 and studied at the Royal Veterinary College, the veterinary school of the University of Edinburgh. During his career at the Animal Virus Research Institute at Pirbright, which he joined in 1939, Henderson developed an improved foot and mouth vaccine and developed a method of determining the virus content in a sample of infected material, which became known as the Henderson Method. Henderson remained at Pirbright until 1956.

Henderson was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1977.