Hal, Director of His Own Laboratory

Abstract

The most junior researcher in Hal’s group at the RRU was Dr Oliver Scott, a medical doctor and radiobiologist. He had studied medicine at Cambridge and was inspired to research in radiobiology after reading Douglas Lea’s book on the subject. Dr Scott had served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve after the war and, as a naval doctor, had studied submariners’ and divers’ breathing and other problems. His father was Sir Samuel Scott, Bart, and in 1960 Dr Scott succeeded to the title. Sir Samuel was in effect the owner of the largest British privately owned insurance company. He had previously been a textile mill owner and had sold his textile interests before the British depression of 1929–1932 (also called the Great Slump). On hearing of Hal’s dismissal on the Monday after it occurred, Dr Scott immediately resigned from the RRU. However, he resolved to ensure that Hal would continue his research, asserting later that, “Hal Gray was an authentic genius.” So he contacted the British Empire Cancer Campaign, one of the world’s leading cancer research charities, and offered sufficient funds for the establishment of a Radiobiological Research Laboratory. Associated with this project there were several requests: the first director should be Hal, the BECC should provide adequate running costs for the laboratory and there should be no disclosure of Dr Scott’s association with the project. After appropriate consideration, the BECC changed its constitution to allow it to own a building and directly employ scientists. Then it agreed to Dr Scott’s proposal on 10 December 1953 and contacted Hal, offering to set him up as director of a new BECC Radiobiological Laboratory. The BECC was able to obtain additional funds from the Nuffield Foundation for the director’s salary. The laboratory’s location was chosen on the grounds of the Mount Vernon Hospital, where Hal had worked between 1936 and 1946, before joining the RRU. This was totally appropriate, for it was still a cancer hospital and there was much space available. (It was also very close to Hal’s home, only about 2 miles (3 km) distant.) A radiotherapist at the hospital, Professor Brian Windeyer, and his team at that time were planning clinical trials of oxygen as a supporting treatment in certain types of X-ray radiotherapy. This was a happy coincidence, for Hal had been instrumental in discovering the important role that oxygen played in such treatment. However noble was Dr Scott’s gift to the BECC to establish this new laboratory, he experienced much opposition. As he expressed it, “My advisors, financial and family, were dead against the scheme. On the face of it, support of a man who had just been ignominiously dismissed by the MRC, was madness.”