David Alastair Pearson Anderson, 2nd Viscount Waverley (18 February 1911 – 21 February 1990), was a British hereditary peer and physician. He trained as a physician in Germany and England, served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, and then specialised as a cardiologist. Having succeeded his father as Viscount Waverley in 1958, he also sat in the House of Lords where he regularly spoke on health matters and other interests of his.
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Early life and education
The son of John Anderson, later 1st Viscount Waverley, he was educated at Malvern College. He studied medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt and Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating with Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB, BChir) degrees in 1937. He completed his clinical training at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London.
Career
From 1938 to 1939, Anderson was a junior doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he volunteered and joined the medical branch of the Royal Air Force. He was commissioned on 25 September 1939 in the rank of flying officer. He was one of the few doctors in the RAF that were also trained as pilots. He was promoted to flight lieutenant on 25 September 1940, and to squadron leader (temporary) on 1 July 1943. He was demobilized after the end of the War in 1945, and he relinquished his commission in 1956 having reached the age of 45 (at which point he was no longer obliged to remain in the reserves).