Discoverer of Penicillin

  Born at Lochfield Farm Darvel Ayrshire.

Educated at the old schoolhouse a mile from his home, he then joined Darvel primary, where he had to walk 4 miles there and back everyday. He finished his education at Kilmarnock Academy.
He then went to London to join his brother Tom in March 1895. In 1901 he started medical school and in 1906 qualified as a doctor.
  In 1928 while studying the Bacterium Staphylococcus Aureus he observed one of his Staphylococcus Aureus dishes was contaminated by a colony of “something", that was to be a very important observation. That seemed very curious to him, it was then he saw that the "something" had killed off part of the Bacterial colony. This amazing discovery led him to believe that this might kill Staphylococcus Aureus in wounds.
  This he identified as Penicillin Notatum which is a fungus that usually grows on citrus fruit. From the fungus Dr Fleming extracted "Penicillin" that was to become the first Antibiotic. Fleming said at the time “One sometimes finds what one is not looking for".
1945 he was honoured with The Nobel Prize for Medicine along with Drs Floreys and Chain, this being the highest possible international honour.
  Other awards and achievements received by Sir Alexander Fleming:
Fleming, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (England), 1909, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), 1944, has gained many awards. They include Hunterian Professor (1919), Arris and Gale Lecturer (1929) and Honorary Gold Medal (1946) of the Royal College of Surgeons; Williams Julius Mickle Fellowship, University of London (1942); Charles Mickle Fellowship, University of Toronto (1944); John Scott Medal, City Guild of Philadelphia (1944); Cameron Prize, University of Edinburgh (1945); Moxon Medal, Royal College of Physicians (1945); Cutter Lecturer, Harvard University (1945); Albert Gold Medal, Royal Society of Arts (1946); Gold Medal, Royal Society of Medicine (1947); Medal for Merit, U.S.A. (1947); and the Grand Cross of Alphonse X the Wise, Spain (1948).
He served as President of the Society for General Microbiology; he was a Member of the Pontifical Academy of Science and Honorary Member of almost all the medical and scientific societies of the world. He was Rector of Edinburgh University during 1951-1954, Freeman of many boroughs and cities and Honorary Chief Doy-gei-tau of the Kiowa tribe. He was also awarded doctorate, honoris causa, degrees of almost thirty European and American Universities
  Sir Alexander Fleming has had many honours bestowed on him in the shape of Postage stamps, Bank notes, Streets, Roads and Monuments named after him or bearing his work to the medical profession the world over. Some estimations put the lives saved in the region of 200 million.
He was knighted in 1944.
Fleming's first wife, Sarah, died in 1949. Their only child, Robert Fleming, became a general medical practitioner. After Sarah's death, Fleming married Dr. Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas, a Greek colleague at St. Mary's, on 9 April 1953; she died in 1986.

Sir Alec as he was also known died at home of a heart attack. He was cremated at Golders Green and his ashes were interred in Saint Pauls Cathedral London.
In June 2009, there was a new memorial unveiled at his birthplace, Lochfield Farm, and the promise that his memorial in Darvel main square is to get a long awaited face lift.

http://www.scotsman.com/