my Dalhousie University Bicentenary / Bicentennial (1818-2018) project : Martin Henry Dawson and his selfless penicillin

As an alumnus of Dalhousie University (Halifax Canada) , which will be two hundred years young in 2018 , I have long wanted to honour its 200 years of achievements in an unique way.

When the amazing wartime penicillin story of Dalhousie graduate Dr Martin Henry Dawson (1896-1945) fell into my lap in 2004 , I felt a thorough exploration of it would be a wonderful contribution to the bicentenary/ bicentennial celebrations.

Here, I felt , is truly someone who exemplified the "selfless service to greater humanity" that the university tried to instil in all its students and staff.

Dalhousie University Bicentenary 1818-2018

I soon realized that there was very little of the conventional archival materials that an academic writer would expect to have at hand before trying to write a modern (psychologically probing style) biography of an individual.

But it seemed just possible to write an old fashioned "Life and Times" style biography.

I was hoping that any interest its publication might rouse could lead to the search and discovery of items like personal letters that might allow a future writer to create a more conventional biography.

It has been a very long journey but I have enjoyed (almost) every moment of it ....