Jack Heslop-Harrison
| Jack Heslop-Harrison | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 February 1920 Middlesbrough, England, UK |
| Died | 7 May 1998 (aged 78) |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions |
King's College, Newcastle Queen's University Belfast University College London University of Wisconsin–Madison Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Aberystwyth University |
| Alma mater |
King's College, Newcastle Queen's University Belfast |
| Notable awards | Trail-Crisp Medal (1966) Linnean Medal (1996) Royal Medal (1996) |
John "Jack" Heslop-Harrison FRSFAAAS (10 February 1920 – 8 May 1998) was a British soldier and botanist.
He was born in Middlesbrough to John William Heslop-Harrison and his wife Christian Henderson, the last of three children. His older brother was George Heslop-Harrison.
Soon after John's birth, his father, at the time a teacher at Middlesbrough High School, accepted a position at the University of Durham as a lecturer in zoology, and the family moved to Birtley, his fathers place of birth. For seven years the family lived in a small wooden cabin formerly used to house World War I refugees until Jack's father, upon his promotion to Professor of Botany, felt rich enough to buy his own house. When he was four he attended the Elizabethville Infant School, later moving to the Elizabethville Elementary School until he was 11, when he was accepted into the Chester-le-Street Secondary School. He completed the Higher School Certificate Examinations in 1938, scoring highly in chemistry and physics but not highly enough in mathematics to win the State Scholarship he required to go to the universities of Oxford or Cambridge. He took the King's College Scholarship Examination as well, not doing well enough in chemistry to get in. After returning from a holiday in Rùm he found that one of the boys above him had dropped out, and he was now applicable for a scholarship of £60 a year to attend King's College, Newcastle, which he did in October 1938 to study chemistry, zoology and botany.
At university he was taught by Meirion Thomas and Kathleen B Blackburn, who had been a collaborator with his father. He also met Yolande Massey, his future wife; they took the same courses and frequently competed for top marks. The city suffered irregular bombing raids during World War II, one of which happened during one of his final examination papers, forcing them to stop and go to the service tunnels they used as an air-raid shelter. He eventually graduated with first-class honours, as did Yolande.
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