William Frankland obituary

Pioneering immunologist who improved the lives of millions of hay fever sufferers by inventing the pollen count

When Bill Frankland began practising in the 1940s, allergy medicine was barely a discipline. The allergist Adam Fox said: "To say Bill Frankland was the grandfather of allergy medicine doesn't do it justice. He wasn't the grandfather in the sense of being the oldest but in the sense of being the originator of the speciality. He did the original trials and founded the British society. He was still practising in his 90s and 100s, and remained the doctor people wanted to see."

On his release from a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1945, Frankland, who has died aged 108, returned to St Mary's hospital, Paddington, in London, where he had trained. He had suffered with hay fever since he was nine, and when he saw an advertisement for a part-time assistant in the allergy department, he applied. In February 1946 he became full-time and for the next 70 years was gripped by allergy medicine, which he said was like a fascinating detective story.