Lainson was born in
Upper Beeding, Sussex on 21 February 1927. His father, Charles Harry Lainson was a chemist for
Portland Cement and his mother was Annie May née Denyer. He studied at
Steyning Grammar School, before enlisting in the army for a short while. Upon leaving the army, Lainson studied at
Brighton Technical College before studying at
London University earning a BSc in 1951, a PhD in 1955, and a DSc in 1964. Lainson established the
Wellcome Trust Parasitology Unit, in the
Instituto Evandro Chagas,
Belém, Brazil, in 1965 and directed it until the unit was closed in 1992. Under his direction, the unit focussed on parasitic diseases, especially,
leishmaniasis. In 1969, Lainson recorded
Chagas' disease for the first time, and in 1979, he proposed a classification system for different leishmania species. He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1982 and awarded the
OBE in the
1996 Birthday Honours. ==Works==