David Rainsford Hannay was born on 03 January 1939 . He was educated at Cambridge University where he received a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology in 1958 , an MB BChir in 1964 and an MD in Medical Education in 1982 . He received his PhD in Community Health from the University of Glasgow in 1975 .
The Glasgow Symptom Survey was conducted as research for the PhD thesis of David Rainsford Hannay, awarded in 1975. The thesis entitled Symptoms and referral in Glasgow was undertaken in the Department of Community Medicine under the supervision of Dr V.M. Hawthorne. In 1979 the research was again used for Dr Hannay's publication The Symptom Iceberg: A Study of Community Health (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979).
He has been a Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow in the University of Glasgow's Department of General Practice and Professor of General Practice in the University of Sheffield. He became an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University's Crichton Campus in Dumfries in 2000 and lectured on the Sociology of Health and Illness course.
In 2000 he was awarded å£90,000 over three years by the Government's Chief Scientist's Office to develop research by people working in primary care. This resulted in the formation of the Dumfries and Galloway Primary Care Network.
From the guide to the Papers of David Rainsford Hannay, b.1939, senior lecturer and senior research fellow, Department of General Practice, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1975, (Glasgow University Archive Services)
