Joseph Lamb obituary

My father Joseph Lamb, who has died aged 87, was professor of physiology at the University of St Andrews, chairman of the Save British Science society (SBS) and the initiator of one of the first shareholder campaigns to tackle excessive executive pay.

He was born in Brechin, near Aberdeen, the son of Joe, a tenant farmer, and Agnes (nee Fairweather), a schoolteacher. He contracted tuberculosis at an early age and spent a year reading encyclopedias during his recovery. He was a self-proclaimed "idle chap" at Brechin high school, although he went on to shine at physics. He won a place to study medicine and gained a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, after a brief spell maintaining radio masts for the RAF at Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire.