John Boyd Orr - World Citizen

John Boyd Orr (later Sir John Boyd Orr) was the founding Director of the Rowett Institute.   He was born in Ayrshire in 1880, the middle child of a family of seven.   He was undoubtedly one of the great Scots of the last century.  

John Boyd Orr was the founding father of modern nutrition science and his achievements were outstanding.   He was the first scientist to show that there was a link between poverty, poor diet and ill health. In 1936 he showed that at least one third of the UK population were so poor that they couldn't afford to buy sufficient food to provide a healthy diet.  

Among his many research findings was the demonstration of the nutritional benefits in young children of drinking milk   - a result which led to the introduction of free school milk.   The landmark Carnegie Survey of Diet and Health in Pre-War Britain, which Boyd Orr masterminded, was used by the UK Government to help formulate the food ration during World war II.

When Boyd Orr retired from the Institute in 1945, he embarked on another career as the first Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation.  

Among his many awards he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1949, the same year as he was knighted.

These web pages follow Boyd Orr's career from his first degree at Glasgow University to his death at his home on Brechin in 1971.

A lifetime of achievement: