Background
He was born in Melbourne in Australia on 29 June 1897 and attended Wesley College in Melbourne.
director geneticist Zoologist vice president
He was born in Melbourne in Australia on 29 June 1897 and attended Wesley College in Melbourne.
He continued as a postgraduate, gaining an Master of Science in 1923 then travelling to the United Kingdom to study for a Doctor of Philosophy at Edinburgh University under the wing of James Cossar Ewart. He gained his Doctor of Philosophy from Edinburgh in 1925 and in 1931 he received a further honorary Doctor of Science from Melbourne University.
He served as Director of the Poultry Research Centre from 1947 until 1962. Here he also began work at the Animal Breeding Research Department (later renamed the Institute of Animal Genetics). In 1927 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposers including James Hartley Ashworth, James Cossar Ewart and Sir Robert Blyth Greig.
In 1932 he was awarded the Keith Medal for his contributions to the study of the biology of the fowl.
He served as Vice President of the Society from 1943 to 1946. In the Second World War he served as Acting Director whilst the former Director, Francis Albert Eley Crew FRSE, served in the war, and in 1947 he fully replaced him as Director.
The overall speciality was in poultry research, especially chicken reproduction. In the New Years Honours list on 1 January 1955 he was made a Commander of the British Empire.
He died at 64 Strathearn Road in Edinburgh on 4 May 1981 and was buried at Grange Cemetery.
The simple gravestone lies in the modern southern section of the west extension. Greenwood served in the Camel Field Ambulance (part of the Australian Imperial Forces) in Palestine in the First World War. He had no children by either marriage and ironically is presumed to have been infertile.