Major Alfred Whitmore was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 pathologist who, together with C.S. Krishnaswami, identified Burkholderia pseudomallei

Burkholderia pseudomallei

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a Gram-negative, bipolar, aerobic, motile rod-shaped bacterium. It infects humans and animals and causes the disease melioidosis. It is also capable of infecting plants....

, the causative agent of melioidosis

Melioidosis

Melioidosis is an infectious disease caused by a Gram-negative bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei, found in soil and water. It is of public health importance in endemic areas, particularly in Thailand and northern Australia. It exists in acute and chronic forms. Symptoms may include pain in...

 (also known as "Whitmore's disease") in opium addicts in Rangoon in 1911. He differentiated it from Burkholderia mallei

Burkholderia mallei

Burkholderia mallei is a gram-negative bipolar aerobic bacterium, a Burkholderia-genus human and animal pathogen causing Glanders; the Latin name of this disease gave name to the causative agent species...

, the causative agent of glanders

Glanders

Glanders is an infectious disease that occurs primarily in horses, mules, and donkeys. It can be contracted by other animals such as dogs, cats and goats...

, by clinical and microbiological features.

He was initially a Captain, and later a Major, in the Indian Medical Service. Later, he also became director of the Rangoon Medical School.