Jack Heslop-Harrison

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Jack Heslop-Harrison bigraphy, stories - British botanist

Jack Heslop-Harrison : biography

10 February 1920 – 07 May 1998

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

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, 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.

Director at Kew

In 1970 he was formally offered the position of Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 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.

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 magnetron. 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.

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 Medal 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 Honorary Visiting Workers. In 1996 he was awarded the Linnean Medal and the Royal Medal. He died on 8 May 1998.