Jim Macgregor & John O’Dowd

Jim Macgregor (b. 1947) was raised in a cottage in the grounds of a hospital for war disabled near Glasgow where his father (Royal Navy) was sent after being wounded in WWII. Through Jim’s voluntary work in the hospital while a medical student, and his close contact with badly wounded men from both world wars, he developed a keen interest in the origins of the wars. He had a career in family medicine before taking early retirement in 2001, and has spent the last 20 years in full-time research into the origins of the First and Second World Wars. He is the author and co-author of numerous books and articles on WWI and has now turned his attention to WWII. John O’Dowd, PhD (b. 1953) is the son of a Lanarkshire steelworker who served in RAF bombers during WWII. He never spoke of it. John worked on cancer at the prestigious Chester-Beatty labs of London’s Institute of Cancer Research, and in cardiovascular research at the Institute of Physiology, University of Glasgow. He was appointed senior lecturer in biochemistry, and then to senior research and intellectual property management roles in the Scottish Government Health Dept, and in the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He took early retirement seven years ago and has been involved since with Jim Macgregor in applying their significant research expertise both to the origins of WWII and geopolitics in general. He has many publications to his name, both scientific and political.