He was born on the island of
Islay of the western Scottish coast on 8 October 1921. He was the son of John Currie and Maggie Mactaggart. He attended
Port Ellen Primary School then
Bowmore High School. He was then sent to the mainland to attend
Glasgow High School for his final school years, from whence he studied medicine at
Glasgow University graduating MB ChB in 1944. He then studied as a postgraduate at
Edinburgh University. From 1947, he lectured in Pathology at
Glasgow University. In 1959 he took a job in
London with the
Imperial Cancer Research Fund as Head of Pathology, beginning a lifelong connection with cancer research. In 1962 he was offered the Regius Professor chair in Pathology at
Aberdeen University. His research began to concentrate on cell death. During this he did joint research with the Australian,
John Kerr, and
Andrew Wyllie. They called this process
apoptosis, publishing their results in 1972.
Glasgow University and
Aberdeen University each awarded him an honorary doctorate: LLD from Glasgow and DSc from Aberdeen. In 1964 he was elected a member of the
Harveian Society of Edinburgh. In 1964, he was also elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were George L Montgomery,
James Norman Davidson,
Thomas Symington and Richard H A Swain. He served as their vice-president 1988–90 and president 1991–93 He died in
Edinburgh on 12 January 1994. ==Family==