Remembering a Veteran: John Boyd Orr, MC, DSO, and Nobel Prize

 

John Boyd Orr in Wartime Uniform

Add renowned Scottish nutritionist Lord Boyd Orr (1880–1971) to the list of Nobel Laureates (Peace, 1949), who served in the Great War.  At the start of the war John Boyd Orr was head of research institute in Aberdeen being set up to look at animal nutrition. Two World Wars later, his peace prize would be awarded  for research into nutrition and his work as the first Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

He was given leave to join the British Army where his first commission was in a civilian section of the R.A.M.C. dealing with sanitation in training camps. Boyd Orr was able to push through schemes for improvement in hygiene. After 18 months he was posted as Medical Officer to an infantry unit, the 1st Sherwood Foresters. He spent much of his time in shell holes, patching up the many wounded. He was awarded a Military Cross after the Battle of the Somme, and the Distinguished Service Order after Passchendaele. He also made arrangements for the battalion's diet to be supplemented by vegetables collected from local deserted gardens and fields. As a result, unlike other units, he did not need to send any of the men in his medical charge to hospital. He also prevented his men getting trench foot by personally ensuring they were fitted with boots a size larger than usual.

To keep in touch with medical and nutritional advances, he asked to be transferred to the navy, being posted to HMS Furious. On board ship his medical duties were light, enabling him to do a great deal of reading. He was later recalled to work studying food requirements of the army.  During the Second World War, he was a member of Churchill's Scientific Committee on Food Policy and helped to formulate the nations food rationing program.

A Representative Quote from Boyd's Later Period

In the years following the Second World War, Boyd Orr was associated with virtually every organization that has agitated for world government, in many instances devoting his considerable administrative and propagandist skills to the cause. He died in 1971 at age 90.