Which uncle's inheritance helped Fleming pursue medical education?

The inheritance that helped Alexander Fleming pursue medical education came from his uncle John Fleming.

After moving to London and working for four years in a shipping office, Fleming inherited money from his uncle John Fleming. That financial support helped him leave office work and begin the medical education that led to his career as a physician and bacteriologist.

Fleming enrolled at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in Paddington in 1901. His older brother Thomas was already a physician and encouraged him to follow medicine. Fleming performed exceptionally well at St Mary's, earning an MBBS degree with distinction in 1906 and later joining the research group led by bacteriologist Almroth Wright.

The inheritance is sometimes replaced in popular retellings by a story that Fleming's education was paid for by Winston Churchill's father after Fleming's father supposedly rescued Churchill. That story is regarded as a myth, not the documented explanation. The reliable biographical account identifies John Fleming's inheritance as the relevant financial help. Fleming's later discovery of penicillin at St Mary's helped make the hospital central to his legacy.