Herbert Rees Wilson on a Circular Plaque Just Inside the Main

Herbert Rees Wilson On a circular plaque just inside the main entrance to King’s College on the Strand in London there are the names of five scientists and the inscription says “DNA X-ray diffraction studies 1953”. One of these names is that of Herbert Rees Wilson who was born on 28th January 1929 on his grandfather's farm in Nefyn on the Llyn peninsula in north Wales. His father, Thomas, was a ship's captain, and his mother Jennie was staying with her parents because her husband was away at sea for long periods. When Herbert's brother John was born, the family moved into their own house, Summer Hill, in the town. Herbert was educated at Nefyn school, Pwllheli Grammar School and UCNW (University College of North Wales) Bangor, where he was awarded a first class honours BSc in Physics in 1949, and a PhD in 1952. His PhD work involved using X-ray diffraction techniques under the supervision of Prof. Edwin A. Owen, the title of his thesis being the Effect of cold-work on metals at ordinary temperatures. As he neared the end of his PhD, Herbert wondered what he might do next, and to quote him directly he was 'keen to change from solid-state physics to biophysics'. He took advice from his supervisor and, after a number of interviews and discussions, joined Maurice Wilkins in 1952 to work on X-ray diffraction studies of DNA at King's College in London. This group provided much of the evidence that led Francis Crick and James Watson to postulate their now-famous double-helix structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA), making their crucial contribution to our understanding of the transmission of genetic information. Few discoveries can have been as important as this to an understanding of the physical and chemical basis of how heredity works. In the same issue of Nature (no. 2356, 25 April 1953) in which Watson and Crick first postulated their structure of DNA, there were two other papers from the King’s College X-ray group, one by M.H.F. Wilkins, A.R. Stokes and H.R. Wilson and the other by Rosalind E Franklin and R.G. Gosling; these papers gave experimental support to the model which Watson and Crick had built. It is these five researchers who are commemorated on the plaque mentioned above, which was unveiled at King’s College on the 40th anniversary of the double-helix discovery. After the double helix model had been proposed, it needed a great deal of further very accurate X-ray diffraction work for the rigorous testing of the model, and the group from King’s College played a major role in that work over the next few years. Herbert remained at King’s College, initially on a University of Wales Fellowship and later on a British Empire Cancer Campaign grant; his work there was concerned with X-ray diffraction studies of DNA and nucleoproteins. In the summer of 1957 Herbert left King’s College to take up a lectureship at Queen's College Dundee, which was then part of St. Andrew's University and subsequently became the University of Dundee. There he successively rose to be Senior Lecturer (1964) and Reader (1973). There are many very happy memories of that period; family times, many, many holidays in Wales usually surrounded by friends and family. There was a memorable, if stormy, crossing of the Atlantic for the whole family to New York in the Queen Mary. They were en route to Boston and, for Herbert, some months in 1962 at the Children's Cancer Research Hospital there. In Dundee, Herbert worked together with Patrick Tollin, Douglas Young and John Low and determined the structures of many nucleic acid components and their analogues to analyse their preferred conformations. After he returned from his sabbatical in Boston, the Dundee group also started structural studies of flexuous plant viruses, the virus studies being stimulated by the work of Donald Caspar and Aaron Klug who were writing their classic paper on the theory of virus structure at the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation during Herbert’s time there. Many of the virus studies were carried out in collaboration with the virology group of the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Invergowrie. It was during his time at Dundee that Herbert wrote his book on Diffraction of X-rays by Proteins, Nucleic Acids and Viruses, which was published (by Edward Arnold) in 1966 with a Japanese edition being published in 1969. It was a landmark book that was concise and instructive, and of great value to people entering this field at that time. The final stage of Herbert's academic career brought him to Stirling University where, in 1983, he was appointed to be Head of the Department of Physics, and where he continued his research on the structures of plant viruses. This was at a time when small Physics departments throughout the UK were being placed under severe pressures, and Stirling’s Physics staffing levels were, as national peer bodies were beginning to suggest, below the minimum viable size. It was a daunting task that he faced, but the staff quickly realized that they had a sincere and trustworthy leader. His enthusiasm and buoyant optimism quickly rubbed off, and morale began to rise rapidly. The Department introduced an Honours programme in which the third-year students studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara! This programme kept going for five years, producing many fine young graduates in the process. It was a tough time for the Department but, largely due to Herbert’s influence, it was also one of the happiest. His final year unit on biophysics included details of his own research interests, and one artistic physics student encapsulated some aspects of this, including an image of a protein molecule and people in the Physics Department into a painting that now forms part of the University’s Art Collection. In due course, staff/student ratio and unit cost considerations had taken a firm hold throughout UK universities, and, eventually, even Herbert was unable to prevent the rundown of the physics teaching programme to service levels. As research funding was withdrawn, Herbert’s interest and encouragement enabled staff to establish fruitful collaborations with other universities, as he himself had done throughout his time at Stirling. He retired from Stirling in 1991, but as Professor Emeritus, he kept a fatherly interest in the few Physics and Astronomy units that were being taught by the remaining two staff, and also represented the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the General Convocation of Stirling University. Herbert was immensely proud of the honours bestowed on him in his native Wales. He was made an honorary member of the Order of the White Robe of the Gorsedd of Bards; this was conferred on him at the Eisteddfod at Newport in 2003. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Wales and an Honorary Fellowship by Bangor University, both in 2005. Romance started early in Herbert’s life! What started as a mild dalliance in the sixth form developed when Beti and Herbert were both undergraduates together at university in Bangor, and they graduated together on the same day in 1949. They were married in 1952 - a marriage which lasted 55 years. With Beti having taken a degree in philosophy and Herbert in physics, this led to a lifetime of informed discussion and lively debate about the relative merits of the humanities and the sciences! While they were living in London, their first two children, Iola and Neil, were born; sadly Neil died in 1996. Their third child, Helen, was born in Dundee. Herbert will be greatly missed by Beti, Iola and Helen and their partners Richard and George, grandchildren Francesca and Andy, and also by countless colleagues and friends. I am grateful to Beti Wilson and Jack Woolsey for providing me with some of the material for this Notice. Arthur P. Cracknell Herbert Rees Wilson BSc, PhD(UCNW), HonDSc (University of Wales), Hon FUWB, CPhys, FInstP, Hon Mem Gorsedd of Bards. Born 28 January 1929, Elected FRSE 3 March 1975, died 22 May 2008..

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