This article is about the 19th century physiologist, not Marcus Pembrey, Geneticist.

Marcus Seymour Pembrey FRS, (1868 – 23 July 1934) was a British physiologist who held important posts in several British hospitals and other organisations. He was also the author of several well known medical books. Although he worked primarily as a lecturer in physiology he spent time in the laboratory of Walther Flemming at Kiel in Germany, where pioneer work in cytological technique was going on, and then at Würzburg where he carried out research under Adolf Eugen Fick and Eduard von Rindfleisch. In Oxford, where he then worked as a demonstrator in physiology, he collaborated with Professor J.S. Haldane in determining the composition of air. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, (FRS) in 1922. Many of his hundreds of old students from Guy's Hospital went on to become eminent physicians, surgeons, clinical chemists, haematologists and gynaecologists of their day. For some 30 years until his retirement in 1933, he was Chairman and Treasurer of the Guy's Hospital Physiological Debating Society.

Pembrey (Welsh: Pen-bre) is a village in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated between Burry Port and Kidwelly, overlooking Carmarthen Bay.

History

The name Pembrey is an Anglicisation of the Welsh, Pen-bre. "Pen" is a Welsh word meaning head or top, and "bre" is an old Celtic word for a promontory.

The coastline began its retreat from the foot of Pembrey Mountain some 6,000 years ago, revealing land which shows human occupation since the Iron Age, with hill forts dating from around 400 BC. Roman pottery remains have been unearthed in the oldest parts of the village. Evidence of an early Norman motte-and-bailey castle has been suggested close to the village square and buildings remain in the village from later Norman times.

The village was home to Arnold le Boteler, a Norman squire of the 12th century. His manor, Court Farm, Pembrey, subsequently extended into a Jacobean manor house and then a farm, is now sadly derelict. The le Boteler (Butler) crest can be seen in the village church of St. Illtud, established during le Boteler's lifetime with its saint's name connected to his other estate of Dunraven, Southerndown, near Llantwit Major, Bridgend. St Illtyd's is a grade II* listed building.