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FREDERICK GEORGE THOMAS HOLLIDAY CBE, FRSB, Cimgt

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FREDERICK GEORGE THOMAS HOLLIDAY CBE, FRSB, Cimgt FREDERICK GEORGE THOMAS HOLLIDAY CBE, FRSB, CIMgt, FRSE, 22 September 1935 - 5 September 2016 When Fred Holliday started his career as a herring biologist in 1956 no one could have predicted that he would become Vice-Chancellor of Durham University, a prominent business man and one of the ‘great and the good’! Born on the 22nd of September in 1935, he was educated at Bromsgrove County High School, and then went up to Sheffield University where, in 1956, he was awarded first class honours in zoology. Apparently he was attracted there by the presence of the Nobel prize-winner and biochemist, Hans Krebs – a very mature judgement for a school leaver! He then became a Development Commission fisheries research student for two years (in lieu of National Service) before being appointed as a Scientific Officer in the Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen. This laboratory was run by the Scottish Home Department in Edinburgh and had, as its main function, the monitoring of commercial fish stocks in the seas around Scotland. He joined the herring group at the laboratory in 1958. At that time research on the herring followed a conventional ‘top-down’ approach in which herring samples were taken from commercial catches and from research vessels. Changes in year-class strength were followed from year-to-year to assess fishing mortality rates and there was an extensive fish tagging programme. Coupled with fishery statistics, the aim was to assess optimum rates of capture, to check for overfishing and to predict the yield of the fishery in subsequent years. Fred, however, joined a small group using a new, in fisheries research, ‘bottom-up’ approach in which herring were kept in aquaria and their spawning behaviour and the subsequent development of the eggs, larvae and juveniles followed to appraise their viability and survival, obviously an important factor in brood survival and recruitment to the fishery. This group used pioneering methods to capture and hold the adults and especially to rear the hatched larvae through the vulnerable and delicate young stages. Fred showed how spawning herring selected a suitable substratum to deposit their eggs (herring being unusual among commercial fish species in not having pelagic eggs). He worked on the metabolism and osmoregulation of the eggs and larvae using recently developed micro-analytical techniques and micro-balances. Much of this work is still of current value and has not been improved on. In 1961 he was appointed as a lecturer in the Natural History (Zoology) Department of Aberdeen University by the Regius Professor, Vero Wynne-Edwards. Fred continued his work on herring (and also on plaice) larvae using electron-microscopy to study the role of the epidermis and gills in osmoregulation. He taught biology to 1st year medical students and started to supervise the first of his Ph.D. students. He took a significant step in 1967, moving to the embryonic University of Stirling as the first Professor of Biology. Following the Robbins Report of 1963, which recommended a great expansion of the UK university sector, Stirling University was founded as the only completely new University in Scotland, the others being upgraded colleges of further education. Following unsuccessful bids from other parts of Scotland a 360-acre site was selected between Stirling and Bridge of Allan, being part of the Airthrey Castle estate. A chemist, Tom Cottrell, had been appointed as the first Principal and Vice-Chancellor and, by some serendipity, Lord Robbins, the architect of the massive expansion of the universities in the UK, was appointed as the first Chancellor (quite a coup!). Cottrell had moved with commendable speed to establish a working university and, by 1968, the first prefabricated teaching building, Pathfoot, was in use for teaching. The university offices were situated in Airthrey Castle itself and a house was built for the Principal nearby. Fred Holliday quickly made his mark in creating a biology department from scratch, but also assisting Cottrell in developing the University as a whole. The nucleus of the department was the laboratory steward who was responsible for ordering the equipment, and Ph.D. students who moved from Aberdeen. Some of these students were eventually appointed to the teaching staff and became associated with Fred for many years and remained as the core of the department after Fred left. He established a particularly valuable collaboration with the Scottish Marine Biological Association (later the Scottish Association for Marine Science, SAMS) in Oban on the west coast of Scotland. Fred Holliday set up a mutual interchange of staff. In particular, one of the lecturers was permanently stationed in Oban and SAMS staff were given honorary status at the University. In subsequent years many Stirling Ph.D. students were able to carry out their research in Oban while staff of the Biology Department had access to the new seawater aquarium facilities there and were able to use the new research vessels R.V. Calanus and R.R.S. Challenger. The Biology Department was established with such speed and success that, in 1973, Stirling University hosted a symposium on the biology and productivity of Loch Leven as part of the International Biological Programme (IBP). The Symposium was sponsored by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the results were published in its Proceedings. Loch Leven is a freshwater loch of some 13 km2 not far from Stirling. It is a National Nature Reserve of particular importance as a habitat for wild fowl. Production processes had been studied there with particular reference to eutrophication as a result of run-off from the surrounding farm land. Several symposium papers were given by members of the Biology Department. With co- workers Holliday himself developed new interests in the migration of brown trout using sonic tags. In Loch Leven these were monitored by boat-mounted directional hydrophones and by fixed hydrophones in Airthrey Loch on the Stirling campus. As a result of the publicity generated by the symposium, Fred Holliday made valuable contacts with the Nature Conservancy Council in Edinburgh, the Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory in Pitlochry and local landowners in the Loch Leven area. It was clear that Stirling was an up-and-coming place that would welcome other developments connected with biology. In particular Stirling hosted new Scottish Freshwater Group meetings which a young veterinary lecturer (R. Roberts) from Glasgow University attended, who subsequently founded a Unit of Aquatic Pathobiology which later became the Institute of Aquaculture, a major facility enhancing the reputation of the University in later years. In 1972 Fred Holliday made a major advance in his career by his appointment as Deputy Principal under Tom Cottrell. Unfortunately this coincided with a period of severe student unrest in the university sector and Stirling was not spared. In October 1972 the Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, opened a major new facility on the campus, the MacRobert Centre. They were subjected to appalling abuse by the students. Cottrell, Holliday and other staff of the University were devastated by this behaviour, realising, apart from the shame of treating visitors in this way, there would be a serious knock-on effect to the reputation of the University. (This proved to be the case. Apart from the deleterious effect on recruitment of students, another royal visit did not take place until 2011). Tom Cottrell died prematurely in 1973, perhaps as a result of the marathon effort required to set up a new university from scratch. Fred Holliday was appointed Acting-Principal, a post he held for two years before a new Principal, Bill Crammond arrived in 1975. It would certainly have been difficult for Fred to return to his old post, having been party to so many confidential aspects of the further development of the University. In 1975 he returned to the Department of Natural History at Aberdeen University as Professor of Zoology. By this time the Department had moved to a new building in Old Aberdeen and George Dunnet was the Regius Professor. Fred, with characteristic energy, returned to research and became involved, with other members of staff in various aspects of the population ecology of perch, reproductive biology and immune responses of Atlantic salmon and the activity and metabolism of plaice, all using new methods emerging at that time. One of his colleagues had set up a collaboration with NASA to track the movements of basking sharks using radio tags, with mixed success. All in all the department was a lively place to which Fred enthusiastically contributed. It might have seemed that he had taken a backward step in his career. In fact, in 1975, he had been awarded the CBE, a high honour for someone of his age and position. (He always said that this was a sign that the ‘Establishment’ had forgiven the lèse majesté of the Queen’s visit to Stirling in 1972.) He had also started to serve on various national committees (quangos) involved in running science in the UK. Academics of high ability and with experience of environmental matters were always sought after for such posts. He served on the Nature Conservancy Council from 1975 to 1980 and as Chairman from 1977 to 1980. He resigned from the Council in 1980 on the issue of landowners having the right to veto the formation of Sites of Scientific Interest (SSI). It seemed that he might have been marked out for any vice-chancellorship that became vacant. In 1980 he was offered the post of Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University. This was the oldest English university after Oxford, Cambridge and London. It had a collegiate system and very close links with the cathedral and diocese of Durham. This was grist to the mill for Fred and no doubt he adapted to his new, and very senior, role, with his usual ease and competence.
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