The Canadian medical scientist Frederick Grant Banting (1891-1941) was codiscoverer of insulin and a leader in other fields of medical research, including suprarenal cortex, cancer, silicosis, and aviation medicine.

Frederick Banting was born in Alliston, Ontario, on Nov. 14, 1891, to William Thompson Banting, a well-established farmer, and Margaret Grant Banting. He enrolled at the University of Toronto in 1911 in an arts course leading to theology. However, he decided that he wanted to be a doctor, and in 1912 he registered as a medical student.

With World War I under way, Banting left college in 1915 to join the medical corps as a private. Doctors were urgently needed, however, and he was sent back to finish his studies, graduating in 1916. He was commissioned in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and proceeded to England, where he received exceptional surgical experience in several army hospitals.

On returning to Toronto in 1919, Banting was appointed...