Harold Munro Fox
Encyclopedia
For the basketball player see Harold Fox (basketball)
Harold Munro Fox FRS (28 September 1889 – 29 January 1967) was a British zoologist.
He was born Harold Munro Fuchs in Clapham
, London
in 1889 to George Gotthilf Fuchs, a former captain in the Prussian Army
, and Margaret Isabella Campbell Munro, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel
Andrew Munro of the Yorkshire Regiment
. However, his parents separated when he was just a few years old. Fox was educated at Brighton College
and Gonville and Caius College
, Cambridge
where he read for the Natural Sciences Tripos (1908–1911).
After graduation he went to the Plymouth Laboratory
of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (1911–1912), where he worked with Cresswell Shearer
and Walter de Morgan on the genetics of sea urchin
hybrids. After his year in Plymouth
, he went to Naples
, Italy
, in 1912, were he worked on fertilisation
at the Stazione Zoologica
for ten moths. In 1913 he was appointed lecturer in zoology at the Royal College of Science
, London, by Ernest William MacBride.
When the First World War broke out, he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps
and served with the City of London Yeomanry in the Balkans
, Egypt
, Salonika (Thessaloniki), and Palestine
. It was then when he changed his name from Fuchs to Fox by deed poll
. While he was stationed in Egypt, he met his first wife, Léonie Thérèse Roger, the daughter of Henri Roger, a French people
official of the Suez Canal Company
. They married in 1917. After the war, Fox spent six months back in London working with MacBride again, and also worked at Plymouth Laboratory
again for some time. However, in 1919 he returned to Cairo on invitation by Edward Hindle to join his staff at Cairo School of Medicine
as lecturer (1919–1923). During this time he finished a thesis on the flagellate
protozoa
n Bodo
, the research on which he had begun at Plymouth, and presented it to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
to apply for fellowship
. His application was accepted in 1920, but he took up the post only in 1923. In Cambridge, he and John Stanley Gardiner
organised an expedition to study the fauna
of the Suez Canal
during 1924–1925.
In 1927, Fox was appointed head of the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at the University of Birmingham
, a post he held until 1941. It was during his time in Birmingham that he and his wife became increasingly estranged from each other and eventually divorced. In 1931, Fox married his second wife, Natalia 'Natasha' Lvovna. He was Professor of Zoology, Bedford College, London from 1941 to 1954. Because the college had moved from London to Cambridge due to the outbreak of World War II
, he was able to work with his former colleagues from Gonville and Caius College again.
On retirement he moved to Queen Mary College
, London as a Research Associate
.
His research focused on researching marine invertebrates such as ostracod
crustacea. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1937 and won the society's Darwin Medal
in 1966.
Fox died in St George's Hospital
, London, on 29 January 1967 from coronary occlusion
resulting from a myocardial infarction
.
Harold Fox (basketball)
Harold Fox is a former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association for the Buffalo Braves. In his freshman year of college, Fox played for Brevard Community College where he averaged 27.7 points per game in 29 appearances. After his sophomore year, Fox...
Harold Munro Fox FRS (28 September 1889 – 29 January 1967) was a British zoologist.
He was born Harold Munro Fuchs in Clapham
Clapham
Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1889 to George Gotthilf Fuchs, a former captain in the Prussian Army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...
, and Margaret Isabella Campbell Munro, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Andrew Munro of the Yorkshire Regiment
Yorkshire Regiment
The Yorkshire Regiment is one of the largest infantry regiments of the British Army. The regiment is currently the only line infantry or rifles unit to represent a single geographical county in the new infantry structure, serving as the county regiment of Yorkshire covering the historical areas...
. However, his parents separated when he was just a few years old. Fox was educated at Brighton College
Brighton College
Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for...
and Gonville and Caius College
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
where he read for the Natural Sciences Tripos (1908–1911).
After graduation he went to the Plymouth Laboratory
Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the city of Plymouth, England is an independent collaborative centre of the Natural Environment Research Council . PML's Chairman is Terence Lewis and PML's Chief Executive is Prof. Stephen de Mora.They focus global issues of climate change and sustainability...
of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (1911–1912), where he worked with Cresswell Shearer
Cresswell Shearer
Cresswell Shearer FRS was a british zoologist who worked on echinoids...
and Walter de Morgan on the genetics of sea urchin
Sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...
hybrids. After his year in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, he went to Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, in 1912, were he worked on fertilisation
Fertilisation
Fertilisation is the fusion of gametes to produce a new organism. In animals, the process involves the fusion of an ovum with a sperm, which eventually leads to the development of an embryo...
at the Stazione Zoologica
Stazione Zoologica
The Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn is a research institute in Naples, Italy, devoted to basic research in biology. Research is largely interdisciplinary involving the fields of evolution, biochemistry, molecular biology, neurobiology, cell biology, biological oceanography, marine botany, molecular...
for ten moths. In 1913 he was appointed lecturer in zoology at the Royal College of Science
Royal College of Science
The Royal College of Science was a higher education institution located in South Kensington; it was a constituent college of Imperial College London from 1907 until it was wholly absorbed by Imperial in 2002. Alumni include H. G. Wells and Brian May and are distinguishable by the letters ARCS ...
, London, by Ernest William MacBride.
When the First World War broke out, he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps
Royal Army Service Corps
The Royal Army Service Corps was a corps of the British Army. It was responsible for land, coastal and lake transport; air despatch; supply of food, water, fuel, and general domestic stores such as clothing, furniture and stationery ; administration of...
and served with the City of London Yeomanry in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Salonika (Thessaloniki), and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. It was then when he changed his name from Fuchs to Fox by deed poll
Deed poll
A deed poll is a legal document binding only to a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an active intention...
. While he was stationed in Egypt, he met his first wife, Léonie Thérèse Roger, the daughter of Henri Roger, a French people
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
official of the Suez Canal Company
Suez Canal Company
The Universal Suez Ship Canal Company was the Egyptian corporation which was formed by Ferdinand de Lesseps during 1858, constructed the Suez Canal between 1859 and 1869, and owned and operated it for many years thereafter...
. They married in 1917. After the war, Fox spent six months back in London working with MacBride again, and also worked at Plymouth Laboratory
Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the city of Plymouth, England is an independent collaborative centre of the Natural Environment Research Council . PML's Chairman is Terence Lewis and PML's Chief Executive is Prof. Stephen de Mora.They focus global issues of climate change and sustainability...
again for some time. However, in 1919 he returned to Cairo on invitation by Edward Hindle to join his staff at Cairo School of Medicine
Cairo University School of Medicine
Kasr El Ainy Medical School of Cairo University is one of the largest, oldest, and most prestigious medical schools in Africa and the Middle East. It is located in in central Cairo, Egypt...
as lecturer (1919–1923). During this time he finished a thesis on the flagellate
Flagellate
Flagellates are organisms with one or more whip-like organelles called flagella. Some cells in animals may be flagellate, for instance the spermatozoa of most phyla. Flowering plants do not produce flagellate cells, but ferns, mosses, green algae, some gymnosperms and other closely related plants...
protozoa
Protozoa
Protozoa are a diverse group of single-cells eukaryotic organisms, many of which are motile. Throughout history, protozoa have been defined as single-cell protists with animal-like behavior, e.g., movement...
n Bodo
Bodo (genus)
Bodo is a genus of flagellate protozoan. They are free-living relatives of the parasitic trypanosomes. The most well-known species is Bodo saltans....
, the research on which he had begun at Plymouth, and presented it to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...
to apply for fellowship
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
. His application was accepted in 1920, but he took up the post only in 1923. In Cambridge, he and John Stanley Gardiner
John Stanley Gardiner
John Stanley Gardiner FRS was a British zoologist and oceanographer.He was born in Belfast in 1872. His research career began in 1896 when he took part in the Royal Society's expedition to Funafuti atoll in the South Pacific ; from then onwards he was recognized as an authority on the distribution...
organised an expedition to study the fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
of the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
during 1924–1925.
In 1927, Fox was appointed head of the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
, a post he held until 1941. It was during his time in Birmingham that he and his wife became increasingly estranged from each other and eventually divorced. In 1931, Fox married his second wife, Natalia 'Natasha' Lvovna. He was Professor of Zoology, Bedford College, London from 1941 to 1954. Because the college had moved from London to Cambridge due to the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was able to work with his former colleagues from Gonville and Caius College again.
On retirement he moved to Queen Mary College
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, London as a Research Associate
Research associate
The title of research associate is used to denote an academic research position at a university or similar institution. A research associate usually conducts research under the supervision of a principal investigator. In contrast to a research assistant or research officer, a research associate...
.
His research focused on researching marine invertebrates such as ostracod
Ostracod
Ostracoda is a class of the Crustacea, sometimes known as the seed shrimp because of their appearance. Some 65,000 species have been identified, grouped into several orders....
crustacea. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1937 and won the society's Darwin Medal
Darwin Medal
The Darwin Medal is awarded by the Royal Society every alternate year for "work of acknowledged distinction in the broad area of biology in which Charles Darwin worked, notably in evolution, population biology, organismal biology and biological diversity". First awarded in 1890, it was created in...
in 1966.
Fox died in St George's Hospital
St George's Hospital
Founded in 1733, St George’s Hospital is one of the UK's largest teaching hospitals. It shares its main hospital site in Tooting, England with the St George's, University of London which trains NHS staff and carries out advanced medical research....
, London, on 29 January 1967 from coronary occlusion
Coronary occlusion
A coronary occlusion is the partial or complete obstruction of blood flow in a coronary artery. This condition may cause a heart attack.In some patients coronary occlusion causes only mild pain, tightness or vague discomfort which may be ignored: the myocardium is however damaged....
resulting from a myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
.