Tan Sri T.J. Danaraj was born in Ipoh, Perak on 1st February 1914. He attended the Anglo Chinese School (ACS), Ipoh. He was awarded a Perak State scholarship and enrolled at the King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1932, graduating in 1938. Tan Sri Danaraj entered the government medical service and was posted to serve in the Singapore General Hospital adn later to Malacca, Dungun, Kemaman and Buterworth. He worked as a public health officer in the Kinta district of Perak during the Japanese Occupation.
Post World War II, he joined the academic staff of his alma mater and was very much involved with medical education. He was himself a first class teacher in the practice of medicine. He was elected Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Malaya in Singapore in 1960 and in 1963 was appointed the Founding Dean and Professor of Medicine in the new Faculty of Medicine , University of Malaya in Pantai Valley, Kuala Lumpur (1963 - 1975). After his retirement, Tan Sri Danaraj became a Senior Consultant to the University Hospital from 1975-1977. He then assumed the post of Professor of Medicine adn Advisor to the Dean of the Medical Scholl, King Adbul Aziz University Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 1977-1980.
Tan Sri T.J. Danaraj was conferred a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1950 for his thesis on Eosinophilic Lung and on his retirement, an EMeritus Professorship in Medicine by the University of Malaya. He obtained his fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh (FRCPE) in 1959 and became a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology in 1965. In 1989 he received the Annual Research Award by the Academy of Medicine adn the Royal College of Physicians London for outstanding contributions in the field of medicine in Malaysia. He authred three books: Medical Educations in Malaysia: Development and Problems (1988); Japanese Invasion of Malaya and Singapore : Memories of a Doctor (1990); and Formulating the Diagnosis : 40 Clinico Pathological Exercises with Multiple Choice Questions (1993).
Tan Sri T.J. Danaraj was conferred the Panglima Setia Di-Raja (title of Datuk) in 1968 and the Panglime Setia Mahkota (title of Tan Sri) in 1970. His Philosopy in his chosen profession is embedded in the Oath of Maimonides ".... May neither avarice nor miserliness, nor thirst for glory, or for a great reputation engage my mind. May i never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain". Tan Sri T. J. Danaraj passed away on 19 March 1996.
