John Burns Brooksby. 25 December 1914 — 17 December 1998

John Brooksby was an outstanding veterinary virologist, who worked at the Animal Virus Diseases Research Institute, Pirbright, for 40 years, for 16 of which he was Director of the Institute. He will be remembered for his contributions to the diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease, for his discovery of four new types, for the classification of subtypes and for fundamental studies of the virus. As Deputy Director and Director he was responsible for programmes on fundamental investigations of foot–and–mouth disease virus and other viruses exotic to the UK and for the application of the results both in the UK and worldwide. His advice on the distribution and the control of foot–and–mouth disease was sought by international organizations and by individual countries and was responsible for reducing the risk of spread of disease.