Archibald Durward

Prof Archibald Durward FRSE (1902–1964) was a Scots-born anatomist with New Zealand connections.

He was born on 6 April 1902 in Denny, Stirlingshire in central Scotland, the son of Rev Peter C Durward MA (1861–1924) and his wife Elizabeth (b.1865). The family emigrated to New Zealand in 1906 originally to Leeston and then moving to Lawrence in October 1911. It is noted that his father deputised for the Moderator (Charles) at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand in 1916.

Archibald was educated at the prestigious Otago Boys' High School. He then studied Medicine at the University of Otago graduating MB in 1926 and gaining his doctorate (MD) in 1930. In the intervening period he acted as house surgeon at Dunedin Public Hospital. He lectured in Anatomy at his alma mater from 1927. He returned to Britain to seek employment, gaining a role as lecturer in anatomy at University College London, where he stayed from 1931 to 1936. He then gained the chair in anatomy at the University of Leeds, remaining there from 1936 to 1962. He later served as vice chancellor of the university.

In 1945, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Couper Brash, William Alexander Bain, Alexander Murray Drennan and Thomas J. Mackie.

He died in Kent on 4 March 1964 but is buried in Lawrence Cemetery in Otago in New Zealand.

• The Peripheral Nervous System

He was married to Dorothea Westlake in 1934.