Henry Hallett Dale was born in London on 9 June 1875 and educated at the Leys School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He got a first-class in the Natural Science Tripos and spent two years doing research in the physiology laboratory under Langley before proceeding to St Bartholomew's hospital for his clinical studies. He graduated in medicine in 1903. He then spent some time in physiological study at University College, London, under Starling, and went for a few months to Frankfurt to study under Ehrlich. On his return to England he became pharmacologist on the staff of the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories, for which he was Director from 1904 till 1914, the year in which he was elected FRS. Right from the start he took a special interest in the chemical mediators of physiological processes, and during this appointment he distinguished himself not only for his own researches, but also as a wise director of the more junior members of his laboratory. In 1914 Dale joined the Medical Research Council, and his work for it and for the Royal Society, and the British Council is so well-known that it is unnecessary to record it in detail here. It is appropriate, however, to refer to Dale's kindly interest in the development of the scientific departments of the Royal College of Surgeons, and it was due to his chairmanship of the Wellcome Trust that the College was able to establish the Wellcome Museums of Pathology and Anatomy. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1945, a Trustee of the Hunterian Museum in 1948, an original member of the Court of Patrons in 1956, and became a Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists in 1950. In 1957 he performed the opening ceremony of the Research Department of Anaesthetics. All who came into contact with him recognized him as a great man and a very lovable person. In 1904 Dale married his cousin Ellen Harriet Hallett, and she died in 1967. When he died on 23 July 1968 they were survived by their two daughters; their only son had died in 1957.