Background
He was born in Edinburgh on 5 March 1911 and lived in the family home of 30 Bruntsfield Gardens in the south of the city.
He was born in Edinburgh on 5 March 1911 and lived in the family home of 30 Bruntsfield Gardens in the south of the city.
He was educated locally, at George Watson"s College, where he was dux. He then studied Medicine and Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh graduating Bachelor of Science degree in 1934, Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery in 1937, Doctor of Medicine in 1939 and an honorary Doctor of Science in 1945.
The Davidson Building at Glasgow University is named after him. In 1937/38 he studied under Otto Heinrich Warburg in Berlin-Dahlem, in the turbulent pre-war days. He returned to Scotland in autumn of 1938 to begin lecturing in Biochemistry at Street Andrews University.
From 1940 to 45 he was Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at Aberdeen University.
In 1941 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James P Kendall, Ernest Cruickshank, Robert Campbell Garry, and Anderson Gray M"Kendrick.
He was Secretary to the society 1949-1954, Vice President 1955-1958 and served two terms as President from 1958-1959 and 1964-1967. Davidson was Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Glasgow from 1947 to 1972.
He was made a Commander of the British Empire (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1967.
He died of a heart attack in Bearsden in Glasgow on 11 September 1972. Their children included Rona McLeod MacKie FRSE (b1940) and Ailsa Morag Campbell FRSE (b1943).
Royal Society.