Notes on Contributors / Remembering Roy Porter Not only was Roy Porter a brilliant scholar and a dedicated colleague, he was also a remarkable, generous and idiosyncratic individual – in fact, he was exactly the kind of person about whom Roy himself loved to write. We were all lucky that our lives were enriched by his presence. In this section, conventionally reserved for descriptions of ourselves, many of us have also added favourite memories of Roy, or moments when his influence shaped our ideas and careers. Roberta Bivins is Wellcome Lecturer in the History of Medicine at Cardiff University. The topic of her most recent book,Alternative Medicine? A Global Approach (2007), was suggested to her by Roy Porter many years ago. She is now studying the reciprocal impact of immigration and medical research/healthcare delivery in the US and UK since the Second World War. ‘As a nervous PhD student, I came to Roy via the most tenuous of connections: my American supervisor happened to know Roy’s wife. It is typical of his generosity that Roy invited me to London sight unseen, simply as a favour to his wife’s acquaintance. Dutifully, he scheduled regular lunches with me to check on my progress. Alongside the sandwiches and the inspiration, Roy offered me, in his inimitable way, a much- needed sense of belonging. One lunchtime, he dropped into his chair, grinned, and reported: “My mother has a question for you: did the royals use acupuncture?” I was surprised – but the idea that Roy’s mum knew all about my dissertation suddenly made me feel right at home in London. [The answer was, “Quite possibly.”] In later years, when I returned as one of his many post-doctoral fellows, Roy could always console me for the slings and arrows of academic life. After a dire job interview during which I had been scolded for looking too young, Roy told me a story. In the previous year, he had accepted an invitation to address a provincial medical society. The society’s gratified president arranged to meet his distinguished guest at the railway station on the appointed day. Arriving on schedule, Roy watched his fellow passengers disappear into the gathering dusk, until only he and a smartly dressed older gentleman remained. Roy approached, introduced himself – and met with complete disbelief. After further efforts to convince the man of his identity failed, Roy suggested that as he could not look the part, perhaps he had better go home. His companion curtly agreed, and Roy took the next train back to London. I have since told the same story to my own disheartened graduate students, and they too have been consoled by the absurd proof it offers: that sometimes even the finest scholars, like the best books, are judged only by their covers.’ Peter Burke was Professor of Cultural History at the University of Cambridge until his recent retirement and remains Life Fellow of Emmanuel College. His most recent books, both published in 2004, are What is Cultural History? and Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe. With Roy, he co-edited A Social History of Language. ‘I asked him for a contribution, and he was so helpful in suggesting others that I thought it appropriate to take him on board as editor!’ He recalls with fondness Roy’s floral ties in the early days, his literally as well as metaphorically unbuttoned approach in the later period, and his unique style of correspondence: saving time by writing concise but highly apposite comments on the original letter and sending it back. 228 Notes on Contributors 229 Ian Burney is Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester. His most recent book, Poison, Detection and the Victorian Imagination (2006), is published in the Univer- sity of Manchester Press’s ‘Encounters’ series. ‘My first meeting with Roy Porter, though brief, was profound. I had recently arrived in London to start my PhD research on aspects of what I then described as “the medicalization of the urban social body”. In the early months of my research I came across a peculiar institution, the coroner’s inquest, and was drawn especially to the “native” language of inquests, its practical embrace of a vision of English particularism that seemed to mark a difference from the bio-power model I had come to find. Yet when I met Roy to give an account of my plans, describing it as an account of medicalizing the inquest, his response went something like this: “Medicalization is overused, don’t you think?” I hadn’t really thought so then, but as I read further, I began to see his point. I still do.’ William F. Bynum is Professor Emeritus of the History of Medicine at University College London. He has published several articles on malaria in British India, and edited (with Caroline Overy) the correspondence between Patrick Manson and Ronald Ross (The Beast in the Mosquito, 1998). His Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (with Roy Porter) was published in 2005. The paperback edition was published in 2006. His Dictionary of Medical Biography (edited with Helen Bynum) has just been published. His recollections of Roy constitute our last chapter. Harold J. (Hal) Cook has written mainly on medicine and science in early modern Europe, especially in England and The Netherlands in the seventeenth century. His most recent book is Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (2007), which connects European activities to the larger world. He is now examining more closely the significance of ‘global history’ approaches to the history of medicine. In addition, he continues as Director of The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, a role which Roy too occupied, albeit briefly. ‘Roy was known to all as a generous host, and enjoyed a kind of friendly rivalry with some of his colleagues over how many people he could lunch with each week. Mostly, this came from his own pocket – none the less, his managers at the Wellcome Trust sometimes despaired of his habit of taking out endless visiting historians, students (and occasionally their parents) and others. All attempts to talk to him about the consequent expense claims somehow only managed to provoke a smile and a story that smoothed their brows, while changing nothing. Roy was equally generous in saying “yes” when asked to comment on this or that, but the comment usually came back by return post in the form of a few words only – a few sentences if you were lucky – scrawled in longhand, in red or green ink, on the paper or letter that had been sent to him for comment. It was almost always both apt and encouraging, even if laconic. He was one of the few people in modern academic life whose ebullience and personal directness managed to substitute for that dread subject, “accountability”. That was a Golden Age, of which we in our degeneracy can now only dream.’ Lesley A. Hall is an archivist at the Wellcome Library for the History and Under- standing of Medicine and an Honorary Lecturer in the History of Medicine at Univer- sity College London. She has published extensively on subjects to do with gender and sexuality in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain, including The Facts of Life: The Creation of Sexual Knowledge in Britain 1650-1950 (1995), co-authored with 230 Notes on Contributors Roy. She is currently completing a biography of the feminist sex-radical Stella Browne (1880-1955), a project originally seeded by a chance comment of Roy’s. ‘One of the many things I remember about Roy is, more than once, watching him chair a speaker and appear to be having a quiet forty winks for the duration of their talk. However, once the speaker wound up, Roy would inevitably leap in with a cogent and incisive comment, demonstrating a complete grasp of the content and arguments of the paper and their ramifications and opening them up for further exploration in discussion. There was also a story that he once walked into a lecture room, asked “What am I supposed to be talking about?”, and on being told, gave a coherent lecture on the subject, exactly to time, without notes. This may not be true, but is certainly plausible.’ Geoffrey L. Hudson is Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (Lakehead & Laurentian Universities, Canada). His research interests are in the areas of the social history of medicine as well as war and society. Hudson is currently completing a study of war and disability in early modern Britain, components of which were initiated while he was Roy Porter’s last Research Fellow at the Wellcome Institute/Centre. At the Institute, he had direct experience of Roy’s legendary efficiency. ‘It is true that he announced his fourth divorce with a “post-it” on the office bulletin board. There was not a wasted moment with Roy. I was sent to him for a chat about his sponsoring me for the Fellowship. During our lunch meeting no sooner did he figure out that I knew what I was talking about in answer to his previous question than he interrupted me to fire off another one. Just as he worked hard himself he expected those around him to be similarly devoted. When I first arrived at the Wellcome, Roy told me I should work until 10 pm and consider sleeping in my office to save time from commuting.’ Colin Jones is Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London.