Frederick Banting was born on November 14, 1891 in Ontario, Canada. The youngest of five children, he studied medicine before joining the Canadian Army Medical Corps and serving in France during during World War One.

He received the Military Cross for heroism under fire after being wounded at the Battle of Cambrai in 1918. Banting returned to Canada and studied orthopaedic medicine while lecturing in orthopaedics at the University of Western Ontario. Banting along with three other researchers – Charles Best, James Collip and Professor John Macleod went on to discover insulin.

For this Banting received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923. Banting was a keen painter, who married twice and had one child. He was killed in an air disaster in Newfoundland in 1941 while serving in the Second World War. He was only 49 years old.