National Life Stories an Oral History of British Science
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NATIONAL LIFE STORIES AN ORAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SCIENCE Professor Richard West FRS Interviewed by Dr Paul Merchant C1379/34 © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk This interview and transcript is accessible via http://sounds.bl.uk . © The British Library Board. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB United Kingdom +44 (0)20 7412 7404 [email protected] Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, however no transcript is an exact translation of the spoken word, and this document is intended to be a guide to the original recording, not replace it. Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk The British Library National Life Stories Interview Summary Sheet Title Page Ref no: C1379/34 Collection title: An Oral History of British Science Interviewee’s West Title: Professor surname: Interviewee’s Richard Sex: M forename: Occupation: Botanist/Quaternary Date and place of birth: 31 st May 1926, geologist Hendon, Middlesex Mother’s occupation: local politician Father’s occupation: BBC research engineer Dates of recording, Compact flash cards used, tracks (from – to): 18/10/10 (track 1-3), 1/11/10 (track 4-5), 7/12/10 (track 6-8), 29/12/10 (track 9-11), 28/2/11 (track 12-13), 21/3/11 (track 14-15) Location of interview: Interviewees home, Great Shelford, Cambridge Name of interviewer: Dr Paul Merchant Type of recorder: Marantz PMD661 Recording format : WAV 24 bit 48kHz Total no. of tracks: 15 Mono or stereo: Stereo Total Duration 13:14:14 (HH:MM:SS): Additional material: Scanned photo of interviewees Richard West (background – middle) and Dick Grove (foreground) taking a core sample of Kentmere diatomite deposits, Lake District, early 1950s. For detailed explanation of photograph, see C1379/34, Track 12. Copyright/ Open. © The British Library Board. Clearance: Interviewer’s comments: © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Richard West Page 1 C1379/34 Track 1 Track 1 Okay, could I start by asking you today please when and where you were born? I was born at Hendon, in Middlesex I suppose it is, or whether it still is, I don’t know [both laugh], but – and on May 31 st 1926. And could you tell me something of your father, what you know of his sort of childhood and life and so on? Yes, my father was born on the Isle of Labuan in British – what was then British North Borneo, because my grandfather was a railway engineer who built a railway in Borneo and he was born on – my father was born in Labuan Island and then the family – he came back here with – the family came back from British North Borneo in about 1910 or 1911. He went to school at Canterbury, my father, and he became very interested in wireless, wireless telegraphy. And he must have been seventeen or eighteen when he got involved in listening to radio broadcasts and he – it was reputed that he actually heard on his receiver the commands for the battle of Jutland in 1916 and he rushed off with his messages and told the authorities about them but he eventually took a degree in – here in Cambridge, a BA, and he became a wrangler in mathematics and then he took – also took a degree in London in physics. In the latter part of the war he was at Biggin Hill, in Biggin Hill aerodrome with the Royal Flying Corps, administering flights for spotter – trainee spotter, people going off to the western front. After – he became a captain and for some reason or other people retained their military titles long after the First World War, after the last one they dropped them pretty quickly I think [laughs], so he was always known as Captain West. And he – he became a research engineer in charge of research at the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1923 and he was at Savoy Hill organising the studios and so on. He left – he was in charge of that side of things at the broadcasting company as it was then, and then it became a corporation, and he left the BBC in 1926 or ‘27 I think and he joined a gramophone company I think, but by the 1930s he got tied up or involved with the work of John Logie Baird and he worked with Baird on television in the early 1930s and went on doing that. He was involved in the competitions for the [inaud] broadcasting of television in 1935 or ‘36 and, er, and then during the war he © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Richard West Page 2 C1379/34 Track 1 was in charge of a company working on electronic gadgetry of one sort or another. And then towards the end of the war and after the war he was engaged in designing big screen television with a firm called Cintel, which I think was a part of the Arthur Rank organisation but I couldn’t be certain. Anyway, he was a keen walker and he went to Switzerland walking and climbing and he had an accident in 1949, so he died in ‘49. And he had an interesting career really and at one stage he was busy trying to arrange – he was very interested in flying and he had ambitions to be one of the first to fly across from America to Ireland but he was pipped at the post by Alcock and whoever it was, Alcock and Lewis, I can’t remember the names, and he didn’t do that. So he had a lot of interests, yeah, hmm. [05:53] Thank you. And the same for your mother? My mother was the daughter of people who lived in Bromley in Kent. My grandfather on that side was a publican and – in Lewisham and they got married in ‘22 or ‘23. She was a – she started driving in 1917, my mother, and she was a very early driver and a keen driver [laughs] and so she got married and they brought up their family, and there are four, I’ve got two brothers and a sister, and she eventually brought up the family. When my father died she, and the family developed and left, she became a Conservative politician, well, not a politician, a local councillor and she used to be heavily engaged in politics, local politics, and she became mayor of Beckenham a bit after that in the early 1950s, and she – during the parliamentary elections she used to go round with the prospective candidates and she had some interesting stories. When she went round with Harold Macmillan he always put on his flat cap when he went to Penge [laughs] and – and they interviewed Margaret Thatcher when she wanted to become an MP to Bromley and Beckenham constituency but when they – when they heard, this is what she told me, that she had a family with two children, she wasn’t acceptable to them at that time, which I thought was a very interesting reflection on the way people looked at things then [laughs], yes. But anyway, she did – she did very well, she got an MBE for her political work and became mayor and so on, yeah. Well, she died in 1990 – 1993, I remember that, yeah. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Richard West Page 3 C1379/34 Track 1 [08:39] And what can you tell me – you’ve mentioned a little bit about your two grandfathers but I wonder whether you could tell me a little more about either knowledge of or time spent with your paternal grandparents? Yes. We used to spend time with the paternal grandparents who lived in Bexhill. My grandfather, he died in 1936 so I don’t – I have recollection of him but he had – he was a keen knowledge – a knowledge seeker in scientific areas, if I can put it that way, and he built his own radio sets and did all that sort of thing. And of course one’s grandparents at that time were very strict with grandchildren and when we went to stay there we had to behave very properly and sit at the table and so on with our hands above the table and everything like that [laughs]. And I often think of what it’s like now with grandchildren, the difference [both laugh]. But no, he had an interesting career and – my paternal grandfather died and I was never able to ask him because I never really realised what he did till afterwards – well, recently I became interested in what he did in Borneo and how he built the railway there, because building a railway in Borneo is not an obvious first choice in life and so I had a whole of information from the National Archive written to him from the British North Borneo Company in London which I haven’t analysed yet but which is quite interesting, so. But he had a room in the house where he did his own work in that way and my father had a room in our house which nobody else was allowed in and he – he had all his stuff in there and so on, and I think I suffer from the same thing, I’ve got my study and so on, yeah. [laughs] [10:57] So my other grandfather, he had retired long – the maternal one, he had retired fairly early on after the first war, I think, and all I know about him really is that he had – he lived a life of golf, bridge and so on and that sort of thing, yeah.