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Andrew Balfour was a native of Edinburgh, born on March 21st 1873, the son of Dr T A G Balfour, a well known practitioner in that city. At an early age Balfour established a reputation for being a man of many talents. During his student days he was a 6-foot-tall,14 stone boxer and rugby player who appeared for Scotland against England on many occasions. He was also a novelist. His first novel By Stroke of Sword , published in 1897, was a story of romance and adventure in the high seas and Spanish America. He also wrote To Arms (1898), Vengeance is Mine (1899), Cashiered and Other War Stories (1902) and The Golden Kingdom (1903). The last novel was founded upon his scientific knowledge of sleeping sickness. After graduating MB.,C.M. at Edinburgh in 1894, he joined his father's medical practice, but soon he realized that he had more inclination towards public health than to clinical practice. Thus he entered Cambridge University in 1885 and obtained the D.P.H. degree in 1887, followed by a M.D. degree for which he was awarded a gold medal for outstanding research work. Then he obtained a BSc in public health. The first tropical experience of Balfour was a typhoid camp in Pretoria during the period 1900-1901.