Jack Heslop-Harrison
Encyclopedia
John "Jack" Heslop-Harrison FRS FAAAS
(10 February 1920 – 8 May 1998) was a British soldier and botanist.
to John William Heslop-Harrison
and his wife Christian Henderson, the last of three children. Soon after his birth his father, at the time a teacher at Middlesbrough High School, accepted a position at the University of Durham as a lecturer in zoology, and the family moved to Birtley
, his fathers place of birth. For seven years the family lived in a small wooden cabin formerly used to house World War I
refugees until Jack's father, upon his promotion to Professor of Botany, felt rich enough to buy his own house. When he was four he attended the Elizabethville Infant School, later moving to the Elizabethville Elementary School until he was 11, when he was accepted into the Chester-le-Street Secondary School. He completed the Higher School Certificate Examinations in 1938, scoring highly in chemistry and physics but not highly enough in mathematics to win the State Scholarship he required to go to the universities of Oxford
or Cambridge
. He took the King's College Scholarship Examination as well, not doing well enough in chemistry to get in. After returning from a holiday in Rùm
he found that one of the boys above him had dropped out, and he was now applicable for a scholarship of £60 a year to attend King's College, Newcastle, which he did in October 1938 to study chemistry, zoology and botany.
, one of which happened during one of his final examination papers, forcing them to stop and go to the service tunnels they used as an air-raid shelter. He eventually graduated with first-class honours, as did Yolande.
. He graduated first in his course and chose to be posted to Orkney. He was given a position at an AA battery near Dounby with the equivalent rank to that of second lieutenant
, something the battery commander was not happy with since Heslop-Harrison was effectively a civilian. He was next commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps
on 17 April 1942, and was later moved to South Ronaldsay. As part of his technical work he was a frequent visitor to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
(REME) base on the Orkney mainland, and after his Commanding Officer finally lost patience with the operating officer Heslop-Harrison was offered a position as operator of the complex and a promotion to captain, which he accepted. He officially transferred to REME on 1 October 1942.
His time at Orkney was (for the most part) boring. After the beginning of the V2 attacks he took part in the efforts to develop a radar capable of tracking their trajectories, but after a few failed attempts at developing such a device the project was called off with the Allied occupation of V2 launching sites.
In March 1945 he was posted to 21 Army Group Headquarters in Brussels
, where he was tasked with retrieving a sample of the fungus Eremothecium ashbyi from the Dutch National Mycological Collection at Baarn
; it had proved useful in synthesising vitamin B, something in demand in post-war Europe. After VE day he was again reposted, this time to join T-force, teams tasked to retrieve technological data from German research facilities as they were discovered. His team proceeded to Pelzerhaken, near Denmark, where many of the scientists uprooted by allied bombings had been based. Here the team found research into infra red detection, radar systems and U-boat signature masking.
, with the understanding that he would be shortly made a Reader should everything work out.
He moved to UCL in 1950, becoming a Reader in 1953, but returned to Queen's in 1954. It was here he began spelling his name as Heslop-Harrison; with a colleague of his called Douglas Harrison letters were regularly delivered to the wrong person. He did not personally get involved in research, but regularly assisted other scientists with various papers and theses. He left Queen's again in 1960 to become a professor of botany at the University of Birmingham
At Birmingham the university was in the process of unifying its various biology departments in one School of Biological Sciences, something he oversaw and became Chair of in 1963. In 1967 he was awarded the Trail-Crisp Medal by the Linnean Society of London
, and the same year became the first Chairman of the Institute of Plant Development at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
. In March 1970 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and delivered the Royal Society
's Croonian Lecture
in 1974. In 1970 he received an honorary degree from Queen's, something that was apparently prized more than others due to his history with the institution. He relinquished it in 1995 due to the increasing political instability in Northern Ireland.
, a much-prized position. He spent about a year as "director-designate" without official duties or pay and spent much of this time researching for his position, meaning that by the time he was officially appointed he had a clear idea of the direction in which he wanted to take the Gardens. In 1974 he delivered the Royal Society
's Croonian Lecture
, and his presentation was well received. He made large changes to the way the institute worked but clashed with the government, who funded the institute, and eventually resigned in 1976, the first Director to do so since the position was created in 1822.
of the Royal Society
jointly with his wife, and the same year was made a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. In 1985 he retired as Research Professor due to the age requirement, but both he and Yolande were made Honourary Visiting Workers. In 1996 he was awarded the Linnean Medal
and the Royal Medal
. He died on 8 May 1998.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(10 February 1920 – 8 May 1998) was a British soldier and botanist.
Early life and education
He was born in MiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough
Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
to John William Heslop-Harrison
John William Heslop-Harrison
John William Heslop Harrison, FRS, , was Professor of Botany at King's College, Durham , now perhaps best remembered for an alleged academic fraud....
and his wife Christian Henderson, the last of three children. Soon after his birth his father, at the time a teacher at Middlesbrough High School, accepted a position at the University of Durham as a lecturer in zoology, and the family moved to Birtley
Birtley, Tyne and Wear
Birtley is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is situated to the south of Gateshead town and is physically linked to Chester-le-Street across the County boundary in County Durham. Until 1974, Birtley and the adjoining areas of Barley Mow, Vigo and...
, his fathers place of birth. For seven years the family lived in a small wooden cabin formerly used to house World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
refugees until Jack's father, upon his promotion to Professor of Botany, felt rich enough to buy his own house. When he was four he attended the Elizabethville Infant School, later moving to the Elizabethville Elementary School until he was 11, when he was accepted into the Chester-le-Street Secondary School. He completed the Higher School Certificate Examinations in 1938, scoring highly in chemistry and physics but not highly enough in mathematics to win the State Scholarship he required to go to the universities of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
or Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. He took the King's College Scholarship Examination as well, not doing well enough in chemistry to get in. After returning from a holiday in Rùm
Rùm
Rùm , a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum) is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland...
he found that one of the boys above him had dropped out, and he was now applicable for a scholarship of £60 a year to attend King's College, Newcastle, which he did in October 1938 to study chemistry, zoology and botany.
University life
At university he was taught by Meirion Thomas and Kathleen B Blackburn, who had been a collaborator with his father. He also met Yolande Massey, his future wife; they took the same courses and frequently competed for top marks. The city suffered irregular bombing raids during World War IIWorld 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...
, one of which happened during one of his final examination papers, forcing them to stop and go to the service tunnels they used as an air-raid shelter. He eventually graduated with first-class honours, as did Yolande.
World War II
Due to his position as a university student Heslop-Harrison was given deferred entry to the armed forces after the introduction of conscription. He was provisionally given a place on a radio operator course, and as a result spent some of his remaining time at the university doing a course at the physics department on electronic wave theory, something which had no relation whatsoever to his eventual position. He was trained to operate radio equipment in relation to radar and geolocation, and towards the end of the course also got to handle the then-new cavity magnetronCavity magnetron
The cavity magnetron is a high-powered vacuum tube that generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field. The 'resonant' cavity magnetron variant of the earlier magnetron tube was invented by John Randall and Harry Boot in 1940 at the University of...
. He graduated first in his course and chose to be posted to Orkney. He was given a position at an AA battery near Dounby with the equivalent rank to that of second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
, something the battery commander was not happy with since Heslop-Harrison was effectively a civilian. He was next commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
The Royal Army Ordnance Corps was a corps of the British Army. It dealt only with the supply and maintenance of weaponry, munitions and other military equipment until 1965, when it took over most other supply functions, as well as the provision of staff clerks, from the Royal Army Service...
on 17 April 1942, and was later moved to South Ronaldsay. As part of his technical work he was a frequent visitor to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers is a corps of the British Army that has responsibility for the maintenance, servicing and inspection of almost every electrical and mechanical piece of equipment within the British Army from Challenger II main battle tanks and WAH64 Apache...
(REME) base on the Orkney mainland, and after his Commanding Officer finally lost patience with the operating officer Heslop-Harrison was offered a position as operator of the complex and a promotion to captain, which he accepted. He officially transferred to REME on 1 October 1942.
His time at Orkney was (for the most part) boring. After the beginning of the V2 attacks he took part in the efforts to develop a radar capable of tracking their trajectories, but after a few failed attempts at developing such a device the project was called off with the Allied occupation of V2 launching sites.
In March 1945 he was posted to 21 Army Group Headquarters in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, where he was tasked with retrieving a sample of the fungus Eremothecium ashbyi from the Dutch National Mycological Collection at Baarn
Baarn
Baarn is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht.-The municipality Baarn :The municipality of Baarn consists of the following towns: Baarn, Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche.- The town Baarn :...
; it had proved useful in synthesising vitamin B, something in demand in post-war Europe. After VE day he was again reposted, this time to join T-force, teams tasked to retrieve technological data from German research facilities as they were discovered. His team proceeded to Pelzerhaken, near Denmark, where many of the scientists uprooted by allied bombings had been based. Here the team found research into infra red detection, radar systems and U-boat signature masking.
Academic life
After completion of his reports he was discharged from the army to work for Glaxo in penicillin production, but soon left to become a junior lecturer at King's College. A year later, finding it difficult to cope with an underfunded department, he moved to Queen's University in Belfast. The department was small, consisting of a professor, a lecturer and a second (part time) lecturer, and when Heslop-Harrison applied to take a PhD there was nobody qualified to supervise him. He acted as a guide at the 1949 International Phytogeographic Excursion where he met W. H. Pearsall, who before leaving offered him a place as a lecturer at University College LondonUniversity College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
, with the understanding that he would be shortly made a Reader should everything work out.
He moved to UCL in 1950, becoming a Reader in 1953, but returned to Queen's in 1954. It was here he began spelling his name as Heslop-Harrison; with a colleague of his called Douglas Harrison letters were regularly delivered to the wrong person. He did not personally get involved in research, but regularly assisted other scientists with various papers and theses. He left Queen's again in 1960 to become a professor of botany 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...
At Birmingham the university was in the process of unifying its various biology departments in one School of Biological Sciences, something he oversaw and became Chair of in 1963. In 1967 he was awarded the Trail-Crisp Medal by the Linnean Society of London
Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals...
, and the same year became the first Chairman of the Institute of Plant Development at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. In March 1970 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and delivered the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
's Croonian Lecture
Croonian Lecture
The Croonian Lectures are prestigious lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians.Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow one lectureship at both the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians...
in 1974. In 1970 he received an honorary degree from Queen's, something that was apparently prized more than others due to his history with the institution. He relinquished it in 1995 due to the increasing political instability in Northern Ireland.
Director at Kew
In 1970 he was formally offered the position of Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, KewRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...
, a much-prized position. He spent about a year as "director-designate" without official duties or pay and spent much of this time researching for his position, meaning that by the time he was officially appointed he had a clear idea of the direction in which he wanted to take the Gardens. In 1974 he delivered the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
's Croonian Lecture
Croonian Lecture
The Croonian Lectures are prestigious lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians.Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow one lectureship at both the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians...
, and his presentation was well received. He made large changes to the way the institute worked but clashed with the government, who funded the institute, and eventually resigned in 1976, the first Director to do so since the position was created in 1822.
After Kew
After leaving Kew, he was offered a position as Royal Society Research Professor at Aberystwyth University, which he accepted, becoming thoroughly engrossed in research; from his departure from Kew onwards he published 106 papers. In 1982 he was awarded the Darwin MedalDarwin 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...
of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
jointly with his wife, and the same year was made a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
. In 1985 he retired as Research Professor due to the age requirement, but both he and Yolande were made Honourary Visiting Workers. In 1996 he was awarded the Linnean Medal
Linnean Medal
The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or to one of each in the same year...
and the Royal Medal
Royal Medal
The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal, is a silver-gilt medal awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important contributions to the advancement of natural knowledge" and one for "distinguished contributions in the applied sciences" made within the Commonwealth of...
. He died on 8 May 1998.