John Vivian Dacie

Who was John Vivian Dacie?

Sir John Vivian Dacie, FRS was a British haematologist.

He was born in Putney, London and educated at King's College School, Wimbledon, after which he studied medicine at Kings College Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1936.

He had house jobs at King's College Hospital, the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London University, Hammersmith and a research post at Manchester Royal Infirmary. During WWII he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, ending up a lieutenant colonel. After the war he was a Senior Lecturer and then in 1956 Professor at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. He founded the Leukaemia Research Fund, Great Ormond Street, London. His main achievements concerned the Hemolytic anemias, a field in which he was a world leader.

He was founder of the Leukaemia Research Unit, Hammersmith Hospital and founder and editor of the British Journal of Haematology. He was elected President of the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal Society of Medicine.

He was knighted in 1976 and retired in 1977. He had married Margaret Thynne in 1938. He had discovered and named Christmas disease, a rare form of haemophilia. He had a lifelong interest in lepidoptera.