Percy Lane Oliver

Percy Lane Oliver is credited with founding the first volunteer blood donation service. A layman, Oliver was working for the Camberwell division of the Red Cross in 1921 when he responded to a call from a local hospital requesting an urgent blood donation. This experience led him to organise a panel of donors whose blood types were known and who were available to donate on request. The donors, unusually for the time, were not paid. Oliver's blood donation service, which he ran out of his London home, would grow from 20 volunteers at its inception to approximately 2700 in 1938. His model of voluntary blood donation was adopted throughout Britain and in other countries.

11 April 1878

Born on the same birth day (11 April): Andrew Wiles • David Zeisberger • Jamini Roy • Jennifer Heil • Johanna Elberskirchen • John I of Portugal • John Milius • Leo Rosten • Lyudmila Kondratyeva • Patrick Sang • Peter Riegert • Richard Berry (musician) • Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March • Torrin Lawrence • Will Minson • William Wallace Campbell • William of Winchester, Lord of Lunenburg

Born in the same month (April 1878): Albert Champion (cyclist) • C. Ganesha Iyer • Emil Fuchs (baseball) • Erich Mühsam • Georg Misch • Paul Weinstein (athlete) • Rafael Guízar y Valencia • Robert Walser • Stylianos Lykoudis • Walter Conrad Arensberg • William Merz • Władysław Witwicki