What is Alexander Fleming's date of birth?

Alexander Fleming was born on 6 August 1881. He was born at Lochfield farm near Darvel, in Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of farmer Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton.

Fleming was the third of four surviving children from his father’s second marriage, and his father died when Alexander was seven. He attended local schools before moving to London, where he worked in a shipping office and later studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School.

The date is sometimes confused with the year of his major scientific breakthrough. Fleming discovered the antibacterial properties of penicillin in 1928, when he was 47, after noticing mould inhibiting bacterial growth in a laboratory culture. He later shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Fleming’s birthplace and early Scottish upbringing are important parts of his biography, but his scientific career unfolded mainly in London. He remained associated with St Mary’s Hospital for much of his professional life and died in London in 1955.