Sir Alan Aird Moncrieff, (9 October 1901 – 24 July 1971) was a British paediatrician and professor emeritus at University of London. He was most notable for developing the first premature-baby unit in 1947. It was Moncrief who recognised and developed the concept of daily parental visits to the ward, which he developed while at Great Ormond Street, well before the need for this became recognised, and with his ward sister, published an article on Hospital Visiting for Children in 1949. Biography Moncrieff was born in East Cliff Manse, St Johns Wood Road, Bournemouth, the eldest surviving son of Rev. William Moncrieff, a Congregational Minister, and Isabella Masterson. After attending the local Council school, he received his early education at Caterham School and received a scholarship to train at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1922 with a Conjoint diploma. A year later, he graduated with an M.B. B.S. with honours and distinction in medical and surgery, and won the University medal. In 1928, Moncrieff was married to Honor Wedmore, and they had two sons and a daughter. His wife died in 1954, and in following year, he married Mary Katherine Wedmore. Career Between 1922 and 1934, Moncrieff worked at various positions including the Middlesex Hospital in London and the Great Ormond Street Hospital also in London, starting initially as a resident and later professing to being a medical registrar. During this period he obtained experience in general practice, working as a Locum tenens. In 1923-24 he worked in Paris in the health division of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, while attending lectures and clinical demonstrations in the children's hospital there. In 1925 he returned to Britain, and proceeded to take the MD London in 1925 and MRCP in the same year. Between 1930–31, he studied in Hamburg and other parts of Germany, while holding a Rockefeller Travelling Medical Fellowship. His studies at this time were related to the special problems of neonatal respiratory failure including asphyxia in newborn babies. Using the material from his research and a grant from the Medical Research Council he produced a report which he used to provide the Goulstonian Lecture. In 1933, Moncrieff was appointed a paediatrics doctor to Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital and remained working there until 1951 and the Hammersmith Hospital from 1935 to 1964. In 1934, he was appointed to the consultant staff of