BAINBRIDGE, FRANCIS ARTHUR (1874-1921), physiologist, was born 29 July 1874 at Stockton-on-Tees, the elder son of Robert Robinson Bainbridge, chemist, of that town, by his wife, Mary Sanderson. Educated at the Leys School, College, Cambridge, where he studied physiology and took a first class in both parts of the natural science tripos; (1895-1897). He then entered St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, obtaining his M.B. degree at Cambridge in 1901 and the M.D. in 1904.
Bainbridge’s work at this period, excellent though it was, gave no suggestion of the abilities which he was later to display. Medicine did not appeal to him, and for a time, seeing no opening in pure physiology, he devoted himself to pathology and bacteriology. In 1905 he became Gordon lecturer on pathology at Guy’s Hospital, and in 1907 he went as assistant bacteriologist to the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, where his work on food-poisoning bacilli gained wide recognition, and was later embodied in his Milroy lectures at the Royal College of Physicians (1912). In 1911 he became professor of physiology at Durham University and was now able to give undivided attention to the subject which he loved best. His success here was immediate, and when, in 1915, a chair of physiology was instituted at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, he was recalled to fill the post, which he occupied till his premature death, which took place in London on 21 October 1921. He was elected F.R.S. in 1919. He married in 1905 Hilda Winifred, daughter of the Rev. Edward Thornton Smith, of Bickley, Kent, by whom he had one daughter. Bainbridge was of slight physique and had indifferent health. He was not an impressive teacher, though his lucidity of mind rendered him a very successful one. But he was a brilliant experimenter, bestowing careful thought beforehand on a proposed research, and possessing both ingenuity in devising experiments and high technical skill in carrying them out. Thus his contributions to physiological science were of lasting value. Chief among them were his early work on the mechanism of lymph formation, that on urinary secretion and on the effect on the body of partial removal of the kidneys, and, above all, his later studies on the circulation, in which he established the law that increase of pressure on the venous side of the heart accelerated the rate of the beat. Apart from numerous scientific papers, his most important publication was a monograph on The Physiology of Muscular Exercise, a masterly review of the subject (1919).
[The Times, 29 October 1921; Proceeding of Royal Society, vol. xciii, B, 1922; private information; personal knowledge.]
BALFOUR or BURLEIGH, sixth Baron (1849-1921), statesman. [See Bruce, Alexander Hugh.]
BALL, ALBERT (1896-1917), airman, was born at Nottingham 21 August 1896, the elder son of Sir Albert Ball, estate agent, sometime mayor of the city, by his wife, Harriet Mary Page, of Derby. He was educated at Trent College, Long Eaton, Derbyshire, where he showed himself a sensitive, conscientious boy, with a disturbing passion for collecting pistols. He left school in December 1913, and bought an interest in two engineering companies at Nottingham. On the outbreak of the European War in August 1914 he volunteered for the Nottinghamshire and Derby regiment, Territorial Force, and within two weeks of joining was promoted sergeant. He was granted his commission in October, and spent the winter in training. Chafing at the delay in getting to France, he transferred to a cyclists’ corps near Ealing, but aviation caught his fancy, and he entered at Hendon for a course of training. He had to do his flying at dawn in order to be back in camp at Ealing for the 6.0 a.m. parade. He passed out in October 1915, and went to Norwich for training as a flying officer. He was a careful rather than a brilliant pilot. He survived some serious crashes, and having completed his training at the Central Flying School, Upavon, Wiltshire, was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps in January 1916, when he was sent to Gosport as instructor.
Ball flew overseas on 18 February 1916 in order to join No. 18 squadron, and spent his early days chiefly in artillery reconnaissance, which he described as ‘great sport’; but he felt the responsibility for his observer’s life. Although he was by temperament a single-seater pilot, his two-seater machine drove down, during April, two enemy aeroplanes and destroyed one. In May he was given a single-seater, from which on the 15th he destroyed his first German aeroplane. By the end of the month he was attracting notice. After a short leave in England he returned to France and joined his squadron, No. 11, ten days before the opening of the Somme
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