Louis Harold Gray

Springer Biographies Louis Harold Gray A Founding Father of Radiobiology SINCLAIR WYNCHANK Springer Biographies The books published in the Springer Biographies tell of the life and work of schol- ars, innovators, and pioneers in all fi elds of learning and throughout the ages. Prominent scientists and philosophers will feature, but so too will lesser known personalities whose signifi cant contributions deserve greater recognition and whose remarkable life stories will stir and motivate readers. Authored by historians and other academic writers, the volumes describe and analyse the main achievements of their subjects in manner accessible to nonspecialists, interweaving these with salient aspects of the protagonists’ personal lives. Autobiographies and memoirs also fall into the scope of the series. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13617 Sinclair Wynchank Louis Harold Gray A Founding Father of Radiobiology Sinclair Wynchank Rondebosch Western Cape South Africa Springer Biographies ISBN 978-3-319-43396-7 ISBN 978-3-319-43397-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43397-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953482 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland To my dear wife, Anny, whose encouragement and help resulted in this book and to whom I owe so very, very much more Pref ace Louis Harold Gray (Hal) was a one-in-many-millions sort of man. His personal qualities were remarkable and his scientifi c abilities too. His work has benefi tted innumerable people. (You, dear reader, were safe when your last X-rays were taken, thanks to his work.) Yet Hal is almost unknown outside his specialised fi eld of study. So his story and achievements deserve to be told. Hal’s life was unusual; it could be the subject of a Hollywoodish tale of overcoming life’s hurdles, with participation of a deus ex machina . For those interested, some more details of the relevant science are described in an Appendix. However, the text can be understood without it. Work on this book began in 1982, when many of Hal’s contemporaries were still living. All of those I contacted (except one) were happy to comment on him, and among them there were well over a hundred of his schoolfellows. Family and work colleagues were equally happy to talk and write about him. Hal’s unusual high school, Christ’s Hospital, had an enormous infl uence on many aspects of his adult life. Distilling all the available information was a long and happy task which caused increasing awe for Hal the man, his scientifi c achievements and his life. His story more than justifi es the telling. Rondebosch , Western Cape South Africa Sinclair Wynchank vii Prol ogue Just as physics could develop as the younger sister of celestial mechanics, so did biology as the younger sister of physics. (Albert Einstein, 1950) Louis Harold Gray (Hal) prepared for a showdown interview with his employers. This was to be the most traumatic event of his life. He had immense (and justifi ed) conviction that he was in the right and that his employer, the Medical Research Council (MRC) of Great Britain, must agree with his opinion of the matter being investigated. Hal was the deputy director of a research unit, but he had committed the cardinal sin of writing to the MRC’s chief and stating that ‘he had no confi dence in his director’. So this crucial interview had been totally of his own making. In 1953, such a British quasi-government body (for the MRC was fi nanced by the state but independent regarding all its activities) had a very strict communications hierar- chy. All contacts between the unit’s members and the MRC had to pass through the unit’s director. Therefore this formal comment about Hal’s director was to be taken extremely seriously. A committee had been set up to meet on Friday 15 May 1953 to consider and decide the matter. Hal and his director were summoned to make separate oral presentations to this committee. The meeting took place at the MRC’s headquarters in central London, across the road from the tranquil green spaces of Regent’s Park. Hal (as known by his wife, friends and colleagues, although his parents always called him Harold) was a world-renowned scientist in a highly specialised fi eld. More importantly, he was one of the most modest, honest, considerate and caring of men. His moral standards were very high, yet unusually without any traces of self- righteousness. Virtually all of those with whom he came in contact, especially close colleagues, both senior and the most recently appointed, were devoted to him for personal and professional reasons. He willingly shared his thoughts and ideas for new research, and even more importantly, he always had time to receive the most junior scientifi c colleagues and other co-workers to discuss problems (both personal and work related) and to offer much appreciated advice. If this sounds like the perfect boss, this was true in the eyes of almost all of those who worked closely with him. A new, large project was underway for the unit where he worked. It was the con- struction of a cyclotron, or atom smasher. This device was to produce beams of penetrating particles called neutrons, which would be used to treat cancer. There ix x Prologue were good reasons at that time to believe that neutrons would fi nally provide many advantages over the other methods then available to treat certain cancers. But, and this is an exceedingly important reservation, very, very much care had to be taken when using neutrons. Some tentative anticancer work with neutrons had been done in California by Drs. Robert Stone and John Lawrence before the Second World War. It provided some successes, but also some horrifying results, with large amounts of damage done to the bodies of some patients. One patient had part of his face fi nally ‘falling off’ as a result of these neutrons. So the Californian neutron therapy programme naturally came to a rapid halt, in spite of any promise it held, because of these totally unacceptable and unexpected side effects. The reason for these bad results was that the size of a safe and effective dose of neutrons was not known. Too many neutrons had been used. But no one knew how many was too many! Also the best ways of applying neutrons to patients were unknown. If it now seems straightforward to solve those problems, that was most certainly not so in the mid-twentieth century, for virtually nothing was then known about treating cancer with neutrons and their effects on humans. As a result, there were no anticancer studies with neutrons till Hal became involved and no neutron treatment for human cancers until a further two decades had passed. The director of Hal’s unit, the Radiotherapeutic Research Unit (RRU) of the MRC, was Dr. Constance Wood. The RRU was located in the prestigious Hammersmith Hospital in West London, thought by many to be the best in the UK for its high-quality medical research and care. Dr. Wood was a clinician, a medical doctor whose speciality was treating patients with cancer, but she had never researched the body’s mechanisms underlying reactions to such treatment. Connie (as she was usually called by colleagues, though never to her face) was a very capa- ble medical doctor. She had made her name by successfully using radium for cancer treatment in the 1930s. Although at that time using radium was considered a great improvement for some cancers, over previously available treatments, radium was fi nally shown to have so many disadvantages that it has not been in general use for well over 50 years. Dr. Wood was not a scientist and not a suitable person to direct a group of research scientists, because she usually did not understand what they were doing, yet she liked to micromanage. But that was not the cause of Hal’s problems. Dr. Wood initially recognised and appreciated Hal’s scientifi c ability and mostly let him and his growing team get on with their work, although not fully understanding what they had achieved or where they were headed. Hal had a very high reputation in his scientifi c fi eld, both in the UK and worldwide. Researchers from many countries wished to work with him, and sometimes they were able to provide funds from non-MRC sources, to support a stay in his group.

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