Jerry Thomas, Alan Smith, Brian Turner and Paul Thomas
Thank you, Michael for those kind words, and for organising this lovely event.
Thank you too, for your invitation to speak. It is wonderful to see everyone here today, and especially Brian ‘Titch’ Turner and Jeremy ‘JJ’ Thomas, who were my exact contemporaries from 1957 to 1963. We were great friends at school - but haven’t seen one another in over 60 years. My head is swirling with memories, most of them probably inaccurate, but I’m pretty sure I remember Brian and I listening to the first Beatles LPs on an Alba record player standing in the corner of our front room in St Michael’s Grove, where it was eventually replaced by our first television. And I vividly remember Brian and I getting blindingly drunk on pints of Gales at the Portland Arms and then being terribly sick when we got to his home on Alexandra Cresent. We were 16 years old and it was legal! The last time I recall seeing him was meeting at an Indian restaurant on West Street in the December 1964 after our first term at university. He accused me of adopting Cambridge affectations, which of course I denied. But 35 years later, when my daughter returned home after her first semester at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and just about every word she said was Dude, I remembered that Indian meal and cringed; for me, it was Yah - the then Cambridge equivalent.
It is wonderful to be able to reflect on those times, but what was it about that period that made it so special? First, for one born in Swanwick in 1945, it was a very fortunate time and place to be alive; war was over, colonialism was being dismantled and thanks to legislation in the 1940s, universal health-care and widespread secondary and university education were provided by central government. And here in Fareham, we had the added benefit of Price’s School, enabled by the legacy of William Price.
When I arrived at Price’s in 1957 from Wallisdean County Primary School, it was, of course, still all boys; wearing our cap outside school grounds was mandatory; and school included Saturday morning classes. It was an extraordinary place, not because of the facilities – they were barely adequate – but the teachers: Bert Shaw, Tom Hilton, Mr Thacker, ‘Gunge’ Garton, ‘Wick’ Royce-Jones; good humoured, dedicated and incredibly well qualified.
I had a wonderful time during my 6 years at Price’s. I loved the academics; shouting out hymns at Assembly each morning; and Sports. I played on the school football team and a particular memory is of how good a mug of hot tea tastes, after a Saturday afternoon game when the pitch is frozen solid. I remember our class was taught how to take a shower by Mr Thompson when the new sports pavilion was opened; discussing the latest edition of Round the Horne on the radio with Paddy Jenks; and Cadets - CCF - playing soldiers on Friday afternoons. Those horrible scratchy khaki shirts; blanco-ing our canvas belts and gaiters; spit polishing our boots and never quite managing the shine achieved by Sargent Major Dowse. Truly it was a wonderful time, when the answer to most problems was pull your socks up.
I was particularly fortunate, in that after ‘O’ levels in 1961, completely out of the blue Tom Hilton, my chemistry teacher said ‘you should apply to Cambridge, would you like me to write a recommendation to my college?’ The only thing I knew about Cambridge at that time, was that I supported Oxford in the Boat race, and that, mainly because I preferred the dark blue of their kit. On my Dad’s side, my family are farmers, going back 300 years around Meonstoke just a few miles from here up the Meon valley. My Mom was a Land Army girl from Leeds. I was the first in the family to go to high school, let alone university and yet, there I was in 1964, somewhat terrified, off to Christ’s College to read Natural Sciences.
In Cambridge, I quickly learned that it was also a very fortunate time to be in the Sciences; Joselyn Bell in Radio Astronomy was chasing pulsars; Fred Hoyle and the Big Bang were raging controversies and the Life Sciences were exploding. Amazingly, in the 1940s it was still widely held that human biology could only be explained by a special life force that defied the Laws of Chemistry and Physics. It was only in the early 50s that such a notion was finally dispelled, when Fred Sanger sequenced Insulin, and definitively showed that it was just another chemical structure, albeit a very complex one. Then, in 1953 the structure of DNA was elucidated by Watson and Crick, giving rise to molecular biology and all that followed.
Little did I know that only 3 years after leaving Fareham, I would be in Fred Sanger’s office discussing the subject for my PhD and Francis Crick would be working on the floor below. It was extraordinary to be able to work with those people and to study for 3 years in the Laboratory for Molecular Biology. The LMB is an amazingly place, not least because scientists within that single building have won more Nobel Prizes than all the life scientists in France.
That time in Cambridge – made possible by Price’s School - was transformative; it literally changed my life. After Cambridge and 2 years post-doctoral work Denmark, I joined the staff at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Labs in London, and in 1980 was appointed Head of Biochemistry at the National Institute for Medical Research. In 1984 I was approached by a head-hunter to join the the newly-emerging biotech industry in Massachusetts, and although I told him that I was very happy in my job and wasn’t interested, I surprised myself, when 6 months later I began work in a start-up in Boston called Genzyme. I stayed there for the rest of my career and we managed to develop a number of new drugs before we were acquired by a Sanofi in 2011.
I won’t go into detail about my work but simply say, once again a major factor was luck. It was a great time to be in molecular biology and overall, there have been huge advances in Life Sciences over the last 50 years, many made in Cambridge: cloning of DNA, the discovery of monoclonal antibodies at LMB, the whole new industry of biotechnology, and the sequencing of the human genome. These discoveries have had a profound effect on human health. To give just one example; Seng Cheng and Rich Gregory in my lab at Genzyme, showed that the consequence of the most common mutation in the most prevalent inherited disease, Cystic Fibrosis, is not the intuitive one, that the protein malfunctions, but rather it is simply in the wrong place. This, in turn, suggests a novel, unexpected way to target a drug to treat the disease. When the CF gene was isolated in 1989, the life expectancy of a patient with CF in the US was 28 years, last year it was 62 and it is still rising.
I feel very fortunate to have played a small part in this whole enterprise. To my mind, it all culminated in 2020 when, from the time we learned the sequence of COVID 19 virus, to having 3 widely available, highly effective vaccines, was 10 months. I can tell you, as one who has developed several similar products, that is utterly spectacular – it usually takes 10 years and more. I believe we are all extremely fortunate this was possible, particularly when we remember that we still don’t have a vaccine for the AIDS virus, over 40 years after its discovery.
Turning back to education, I should mention that I surprised myself again, when I ended up with 5 children. They have all gone to school and university in the United States. I’ll readily admit that their schools and colleges were excellent - but they cost a fortune. I can also tell you based on their experience and mine, that the education I was lucky enough to receive at Price’s, and later in Cambridge, was second to none. And it was all totally free.
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We truly are a fortunate generation, and by we, I don’t mean just those of us who went to Price’s or live in the United Kingdom. In fact, I would include the whole world. Perhaps you remember that when we were at school, one of the contemporary questions was how would we feed the rapidly increasing numbers of people on earth? In 1957 the world population was 2.9bn; today it is 8.2bn, an increase of 185%. Not only that, life expectancy has risen over that period by 21 years. Even so, thanks to the Green Revolution, food production worldwide is up by greater than 250%, meaning that not only are the vast majority of people on earth adequately fed, but their average daily calorie intake has gone up by 38%. In addition, worldwide the number of people living in poverty has gone down by 85% since 1960. I find this data stunning and initially a surprise, but came to realise that is only because I take a very Western view of the world. Indeed, if I had to fault my education at Price’s and Cambridge, it would be to say that it was too Eurocentric.
So, I’ve argued that humankind is fortunate to have made so much progress. To what should we attribute this? I would suggest, to education – especially of women, and to science and technology, to which I would add, strong independent Institutions, and good governance. Having said that, I recognise that there can be huge problems associated with the unfettered application of Science and Technology, not least Climate Change and Artificial Intelligence. The addictive power of cell phones, especially on children, also needs urgent attention, just as did that new television - that replaced the record player in our front room - and initially worried an earlier generation as seemingly irresistible. Now, I admit that I am an unabashed optimist, but I firmly believe that we have the ability to solve these problems, just as we solved food production, provided we set our minds to it and allocate appropriate resources.
Even so, you may be thinking, if we have been so fortunate, why do I feel that much is not right with the world today? And there I have a admit to a similar feeling of unease, especially at the events unfolding in the United States. There is little doubt that there is presently a resurgence of autocratic leaders around the world and that democracy is facing a severe challenge, even, or especially in the United States. Over the last month, at meetings of US-based Fellows of the Royal Society in Los Angeles and of Cambridge alumni in Boston, I sensed a general feeling of foreboding, particularly in amongst the academics. Nevertheless, I also detected an underlying feeling that we will get through this, though undoubtedly there will be casualties. But it will take action on all our parts, Europe for example, will need to take a leading role in upholding rules-based multi-national government
Here in the United Kingdom, successive recent administrations have articulated strong support for science and for education, even so, it is not clear to me that the same school opportunities we had, are so freely available here today. But then again, that period when the Government thought it could afford to pay for everything was something of an anomaly. For most of history, education including Price’s School, and especially higher education, has been supported in large part by philanthropy. Perhaps we each of us individually, and the Price’s Charitable Trust, can best honour the memory of William Price by continuing to support education, especially teachers and scholarships, by whatever means we can. I would also urge everyone to advocate for continuing Government support for education and science, and for independent Institutions. Currently, these are all massively under attack in the United States.
Before I close, I should mention that a recent long-term review at Christ’s College emphasised our commitment to a broad-based student body, with strong representation from the State sector schools. We don’t get enough applications from them and strangely enough, it is often because teachers discourage their students from applying. A reason commonly given is that they ‘don’t belong there’; that such places are ‘elite’. Well, Cambridge is elite, but only in the sense that Liverpool Football Club is elite – it unashamedly seeks to be the best. Cambridge welcomes anyone likely to benefit, regardless of back ground, and includes, as of recently, a one-year foundation course for school-leavers who show promise, but for whatever reason, are not yet ready to begin at the undergraduate level. Incidentally, I’m proud to say that foundation course is paid for entirely by a gift from Cambridge in America. If you know of bright, aspiring students, please encourage them to apply. It could transform their lives.
To close, I should give thanks to Good Fortune, and to William Price and his legacy of 300 years ago and all that it has enabled. Thanks to all of you too, for your attention and your support of this wonderful event and opportunity to spend time together.
Reference List and Further Reading
The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes 2011
A novel exploring the unreliability of memory, especially in aging males
The Rise of Meritocracy, Michael Young 1958
An extraordinary book I read as an undergraduate, that warned that meritocracy will inevitably lead to a resentful underclass that eventually seeks redress.
The Tyranny of Meritocracy, Michael Sandel 2020.
The Meritocracy Trap, Daniel Markovitz 2022.
Two of the several recent books arguing that meritocracy has failed and that the future of democracy requires a major rethink.
Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker 2018.
An optimist’s reference book of the data showing the progress of Humankind
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 2022.
A Pulitzer Prize winning novel that for me explains the rise of Donald Trump better than any of the many academic studies of the same subject that I have read.
Constitution Of Knowledge, Jonathan Rauch 2021.
Knowing What We Know, Simon Winchester 2023.
Two recent books reviewing how we have evolved a process for establishing the validity of what we believe to be factual truth and the risks and opportunities offered by the internet.