Dr Bill Frankland with Sophie Neville at Drapers’ Hall
Once Alexander Fleming’s clinical assistant, Dr Bill Frankland was still working as an allergist at the age of 103, ‘I have my first patient at 9.00am tomorrow morning.’ I gather he was still working on academic papers up until his recent death at the age of 108.
Dr Frankland and I were both Liverymen of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, so found ourselves seated together in all sorts of places from St Paul’s Cathedral to a bus heading for Romford. Always chatty and full of enthusiasm, Bill was an endless source of interesting stories. He gave me detailed insights on WWII, when he served as a medical officer in the Far East, becoming a PoW to the Japanese after Singapore fell and gallantly agreed toHe became the historical adviser on my next book, ‘The Man Who Got Out of Japan’. To my astonishment I found myself noting down the actual dialogue used in PoW camps. He could remember the exact words used by the Japanese. I was not be surprised to see he’d been invited to the premiere of ‘The Railway Man’, the movie of Eric Lomax’s wartime experience starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. He also attended the 70th Anniversary VJ Day memorial at Horse Guards Parade with other British and Commonwealth veterans.
Bill grew up in the Lake District with his identical twin brother, who sadly died some time ago. He was a good friend of Roger Altounyan and knew his sister Titty. Along with their other three siblings, Taqui , Susie and Brigit, they had been models for the Walker family in Arthur Ransome’s book ‘Swallows and Amazons’. After he began working as an allergist, Bill became a colleague of Roger who developed the Intal spin-inhaler to relieve asthmatic symptoms.
Bill was amused by the fact that, as a child of twelve, I played the part of Titty in the 1974 feature film of ‘Swallows & Amazons’, delighted that I was able to introduce him to Nick Barton, the producer of the 2016 movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons’, now on DVD and released in the US by Samuel Goldwyn Meyer.
Bill lost his wife to cancer some time ago but his family were ever around him. At the age of 102, he told me that his doctor insisted that he walked a mile a day but it was quite an experience to accompany him along the crowded London streets. On turning 99 he began to use a walking stick which was twirled in all directions.
Read more:
‘From Hell Island to Hay Fever, The Life of Dr Bill Frankland’, by Paul Watkins.
Click here for a to listen to Bill give an account of his life on Desert Island Discs
Here is a clip of Dr Frankland appearing on ‘The One Show’ a few years ago (he’s on after Andrew Lloyd Weber):
Sophie Neville 
You must tell me how you came to be a liveryman of the Drapers Company. I studied at Queen Mary College, University of London, from 1950-53 where I was a Drapers Scholar. The Drapers offered scholarships in Engineering at the University of London for which one could sit a competative Examination to appy for this maintenance grant valued at £50 a year. If you won the grant then the Government made the sum up to the full £240/year State Scholarship maintenance grant, which was sufficient to live on as a student – tuition fees were also paid by the Government once you were accepted by a University. I also stayed on a further 3 years to do research for a PhD in Electrical Engineering.
I also attended a magnificent Luncheon in the Drapers Hall once which was held to mark the completion of a new building at QMC, the chief guest was the Government Minister Duncan Sands, Minister of Supply if I remember correctly.
Nigel West
How wonderful to hear your story. My publisher also won a Draper’s scholarship.
I am a Draper through patrimony, my family having been members of the Company since before records began in 1327. I became Free of The City and a Freeman in 1982 and a Liveryman in about 2001. My father was the 8th Master of the Drapers’ Company which still supports Queen Mary College and a number of schools, almshouses and charities. I’ll ask Simon if he would like to come one day.
I have only just this morning listened to Dr Bill’s desert island discs, amazing to think he is 103.
The only question that stumped him completly was whether he should be in an old people’s home. He hasn’t even retired yet – still employs a PA.
The experiences they revisit remind us that we must never take for granted the peace this generation secured for all of us and the debt we owe for the freedoms we enjoy and value today. London Second World War veteran Bill Frankland, a renowned allergist and registrar to Sir Alexander Fleming in the development of penicillin was studying medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School when war broke out.
B
Just to make a correction Dr Frankland was not a Registrar to Sir Alexander Fleming he was his Clinical Assistant and Dr Frankland is very insistent regarding this!
I am not an employed PA!! I just do my best to help Dr Frankland and organise interviews etc for him.
So sorry- I’ll make amendments
So sorry! I will make changes. I thought I had made the alterations ages ago.
Dr Frankland was a remarkable man. When I moved to my present home, in 1978, my then new doctor prescribed intal for my asthma and it made an incredible difference. Before that, my previous doctor had been prescribing postural drainage using Elixir of Caffeine!
My father was a Freeman of the City of London and I went to the City of London Freemen School in Ashtead, Surrey. Our local primary school, in Goosnargh, Preston is the descendant of two previous schools, both founded in 1680, one of which was administered by the Drapers Company. My wife and I paid two visits to the Drapers where we were treated royally and shewn round all their treasures, including the fabulous Lunular.