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John Heslop-Harrison FRS FAAAS (10 February 1920 – 8 May 1998) was a British soldier and botanist.


Early life and education

He was born in
Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...
to
John William Heslop-Harrison John William Heslop Harrison, (1881–1967) was a professor of Botany at Kings College, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, specialising in the genetics of moths. He is now best remembered for a widely recognised academic fraud.Michael A. Salmon, Peter Marr ...
and his wife Christian Henderson, the last of three children. His older brother was George Heslop-Harrison. Soon after John's birth, his father, at the time a teacher at Middlesbrough High School, accepted a position at the
University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...
as a lecturer in zoology, and the family moved to Birtley, his father's place of birth. For seven years the family lived in a small wooden cabin formerly used to house
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
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 Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
or
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
. 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 (), a Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic name often Anglicisation, anglicised to Rum ( ), is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland, in the district of Lochaber. For much of the 20th century the ...
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 Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...
, 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 II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, 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 in Biology, as did Yolande.


World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 magnetron The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and subsequently in microwave ovens and in linear particle accelerators. A cavity magnetron generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons wit ...
. He graduated first in his course and chose to be posted to
Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...
. 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 The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equi ...
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 The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is the maintenance arm of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's professional engineers". History Prior t ...
(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 Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
, 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, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, where he was tasked with retrieving a sample of the fungus ''Eremothecium ashbyi'' from the Dutch National Mycological Collection at
Baarn Baarn () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, near Hilversum in the province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The municipality of Baarn The municipality of Baarn consists of the following towns: Baarn, Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche. T ...
; it had proved useful in synthesising vitamin B, something in demand in post-war Europe. After
VE day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...
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 GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, wh ...
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 London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
, 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 The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
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 The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...
, and the same year became the first Chairman of the Institute of Plant Development at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...
. In March 1970 he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
, and delivered the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
's
Croonian Lecture The Croonian Medal and Lecture is a prestigious award, a medal, and lecture 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 a singl ...
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, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...
, 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 The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
's
Croonian Lecture The Croonian Medal and Lecture is a prestigious award, a medal, and lecture 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 a singl ...
, 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 Aberystwyth University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 stude ...
, 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 Medal The Darwin Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "distinction in evolution, biological diversity and developmental, population and organismal biology". In 1885, International Darwin Memorial Fund was transferred to the ...
of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
jointly with his wife, and the same year was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
. In 1982 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...
. In 1985 he retired as Research Professor due to the age requirement, but both he and Yolande were made Honorary Visiting Workers. In 1996 he was awarded the
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 (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and ...
and the
Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society. Two are given for "the mo ...
. He died on 8 May 1998.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heslop-Harrison, Jack 1920 births 1998 deaths English biologists Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers officers Botanists active in Kew Gardens Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Linnean Medallists Royal Medal winners Academics of the University of Birmingham Alumni of Newcastle University Place of death missing People educated at Park View School People from Middlesbrough 20th-century English botanists British Army personnel of World War II Royal Army Ordnance Corps officers Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Military personnel from North Yorkshire Academics of Aberystwyth University