Fred Holliday (academic)

Holliday was born on 22 September 1935 on a council estate in Rubery, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England.[1] His father, Alfred Holliday, was a technologist at a glass factory that was involved in developing bulletproof glass for the British military during World War II, and his mother, Margaret Holliday, was a cook.[2][3] He was educated at Bromsgrove County High School, then a grammar school in Bromsgrove.[1][4] His interest in science was developed as a child: he would "prick the fingers of his sister, Myrtle, and examine her blood under his microscope kit", and his mother once found a "decomposing snake under his bed".[1][3]

A teacher at Holliday's school encouraged him to study biology at university rather than English literature which he had also been considering.[4] He had been offered a place at the University of Cambridge but turned it down.[3] He instead attended the University of Sheffield where he could study under Sir Hans Krebs, a Nobel Prize-winner.[1] He graduated in 1956 with a first class Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in zoology.[2]

At the age of 75, Holliday developed Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.[3] He spent the rest of his life in retirement; growing vegetables, reading a large number of books (including Gibbon's lengthy The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire), and rediscovering his interest in histology (including analysing samples of his own blood).[1][6] He had developed cancer twice in his last few years.[7]

Holliday died on 5 September 2016, a few weeks short of his 81st birthday, at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.[4][8] He had had a stroke.[7] On 14 September 2016, his funeral was held at William Black Funeral Director's in Brechin, Angus, Scotland, and he was interred at Parkgrove Crematorium, Friockheim near Brechin.[8][9]

Holliday met his wife Philippa when they both worked at the Marine Research Laboratory in Scotland.[4] They married in 1957, and had two children together.[2] His daughter Helen is a veterinarian and his son Richard is an engineer.[1]

In 1971, Holliday was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).[2] In the 1975 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his service as Acting Principal of the University of Stirling.[10] On 23 May 1985, he was made a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) to the Lord Lieutenant of Durham.[11] In the 1990 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Knight Bachelor, and therefore granted the title sir, in recognition of his service as Vice-Chancellor and Warden of the University of Durham.[12] He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II during a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace on 25 July 1990.[13]