The conferment of an Honorary Fellowship on Earl Balfour in 1928 was a fitting recognition of his long and distinguished services to the advancement of medical knowledge and education. Thirty years earlier he had declared himself ‘an ardent believer in the cause of the endowment of research’ and in the proper public recognition of the laboratory worker. In 1902 he made a strong plea for their greater financial support. To him the Medical Research Council owes a great debt of gratitude for his unfailing support during his two terms as Lord President of the Council, in particular during the second from 1924 to 1929, when he was its chairman. It still benefits today from the value of his contributions to its status.

Richard R Trail

[Brit.med.J., 1930, 1, 660-61; Nature (Lond.), 1930,125, 497-9; Proc. roy. Soc., B, 1931, 107, iv-xxii; D.N.B., 1931-40, 41-56; B. E. C. Dugdale. Arthur James Balfour, first earl of Balfour. London, 1936. 2 vols; information about portraits in D.N.B.]