page_title: Frederick Banting
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Frederick Banting / Early years
caption_attribution_description: House and farm where Frederick Banting was born. Next to the house is an interpretive center. Next the center is a small drive shed.
context_page_description: Sir Frederick Grant Banting KBE MC FRS FRSC was a Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter, and Nobel laureate noted as the co-discoverer of insulin and its therapeutic potential.
  In 1923, Banting and John James Rickard Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Banting shared the honours and award money with his colleague, Charles Best. As of November 2018, Banting, who received the Nobel Prize at age 32, remains the youngest Nobel laureate in the area of Physiology/Medicine. That same year, the Government of Canada granted Banting a lifetime annuity to continue his work. In 1934, he was knighted by King George V.
context_section_description: Frederick Banting was born on November 14, 1891, in a farm house near Alliston, Ontario. The youngest of five children of William Thompson Banting and Margaret Grant, he attended public high school in Alliston. In 1910, he started at Victoria College, part of the University of Toronto, in the General Arts program. After failing his first year, he petitioned to join the medical program in 1912 and was accepted. He began medical school in September 1912.
  In 1914, he attempted to enter the army on August 16, and then again in October, but was refused due to poor eyesight. Banting successfully joined the army in 1915 and spent the summer training before returning to school. His class was fast-tracked to get more doctors into the war and so he graduated in December 1916 and reported for military duty the next day. He was wounded at the Battle of Cambrai in 1918. Despite his injuries, he helped other wounded men for sixteen hours, until another doctor told him to stop. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1919, for heroism. In 1918, he was awarded the licence to practice medicine, surgery, and midwifery by the Royal College of Physicians of London.
  Banting returned to Canada after the war and went to Toronto to complete his surgical training. He studied orthopedic medicine and, in 1919–1920, was Resident Surgeon at The Hospital for Sick Children. Banting was unable to gain a place on the hospital staff and so he decided to move to London, Ontario to set up a medical practice. From July 1920 to May 1921, he continued his general practice, while teaching orthopedics and anthropology part-time at the University of Western Ontario in London because his medical practice had not been particularly successful. From 1921 to 1922 he lectured in pharmacology at the University of Toronto. He received his M.D. degree in 1922, and was also awarded a gold medal.
caption: View of the Banting farm. Site preserved under the Ontario Heritage Act, with a plaque from the Federal Government recognizing Banting.
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