These are no more than sparks snatched from the fire of their lives – encounters with men who were most memorable in my life.
I was in my early twenties, recently from University and starting work with Bookers in British Guiana, when as part of my induction into the sugar industry I went to meet Dr George Giglioli at the offices of the Sugar Producers Association in Camp Street. He rose white-haired and slightly stooped from behind his desk to greet me and shake my hand, this great old man courteously and kindly putting at ease a nervous stripling. I was right to be nervous. By then George Giglioli was a legendary figure. Here was true greatness in a man – genius put to practical use for the benefit of his fellow man. He was the first to have the idea and then the imagination and the drive to apply DDT on a large scale to eradicate malaria – thereby saving countless Guyanese and, by the example set, countless millions further afield. It was one of the great medical achievements of the 20th century.
