Walter Thomas James Morgan
Encyclopedia
Walter Thomas James Morgan CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...

 FRS
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 (5 October 1900 – 10 February 2003) was a British biochemist noted for his work on the immunochemistry of Antigen
Antigen
An antigen is a foreign molecule that, when introduced into the body, triggers the production of an antibody by the immune system. The immune system will then kill or neutralize the antigen that is recognized as a foreign and potentially harmful invader. These invaders can be molecules such as...

s and described as 'one of the pioneers of immunochemistry'.

Early life

He was born in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...

 to Walter Morgan, a solicitor's clerk at the Royal Courts of Justice
Royal Courts of Justice
The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is the building in London which houses the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and the High Court of Justice of England and Wales...

 and his wife Anne. He was barred from attending primary school for a year after a ringworm infection on his head; the treatment, irradiation, caused hair to fall out, and his parents refused to sign the waiver absolving the health authority from responsibility should the hair not grow back. Due to this the family moved house to Little Ilford
Little Ilford
Little Ilford is a district of London, England in the London Borough of Newham and the name of a ward in that borough.-Locale:It is located near to Ilford in the London Borough of Redbridge...

, where after leaving the local primary school he attended Raine's Foundation School
Raine's Foundation School
Raine's Foundation School is a Church of England Voluntary Aided school in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.Henry Raine, a very rich man who lived in Wapping, decided to create a school where poor children could get an education for free, so that they could go into skilled labour when they left....

, where he became interested in mechanical engineering. His growing interest in chemistry led him to start his own laboratory in a garden shed using chemicals bought from a supplier in London, with his main area of focus being the creation of "dyes and explosive compounds". The start of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 in 1914 led to a drop in teaching standards as the teachers were drafted into the armed forces, and as a result he left school in 1916 to work for the Gas Light and Coke Company
Gas Light and Coke Company
The Gas Light and Coke Company , was a company that made and supplied coal gas and coke. The Company was located on Horseferry Road in Westminster, London...

, which he left to work at a government-operated factory in Greenwich as he found the atmosphere at the GLCC unpleasant.

Aware that he would be drafted into the military on his 18th birthday, Morgan instead joined early so that he could pick which branch to serve in. He picked the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, and due to his experience working with chemicals he was appointed to HMS President
HMS President (shore establishment)
HMS President is a stone frigate, or shore establishment of the Royal Naval Reserve; on the northern bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.-Present day:...

producing chemicals and equipment for the navy including smokescreen floats.

Academia

He was demobilised in 1919 and offered a government grant to study at university, but his demobilisation came too late in the year for him to start his chemistry degree then. Instead he began his studies in 1920 at East London College. The degree examinations at the time were held after the summer holiday rather than before, so to help with his family's dire financial situation (his father had died in 1918, leaving his mother financially destitute) he again worked for the Gas Light and Coke Company as a junior chemist, where he was tasked with finding a better way to extract natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 from coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...

 than the process used at the time. He demonstrated the process at the Cantor Lecture of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...

, and after an uninspiring start (the control sample initially worked just as well as the one using his process) his work turned out to be a success.

After the discovery of Insulin in 1922 Morgan became interested in medicinal chemistry, and he applied to West Ham Municipal College, where he studied for his Master of Science
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

 part-time while still working for the Gas Light and Coke Company. He finished his degree in 1925, and published his first paper in the Journal of the Chemical Society
Journal of the Chemical Society
The Journal of the Chemical Society was a scientific journal established by the Chemical Society in 1849 as the Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society. The journal underwent several renamings, splits, and mergers throughout its history. In 1980, the Chemical Society merged with several other...

in 1926. One of his tutors while he was studying for his MSc was Arthur Harden
Arthur Harden
Sir Arthur Harden FRS was an English biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 with Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin for their investigations into the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes....

, who impressed with his work advised Morgan to apply to The Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine for a Grocer's Company Research Student grant. He applied even though the pay (£250 a year) was less than that he was getting as a junior chemist, and was accepted by Charles Martin
Charles James Martin
Charles James Martin, FRS, FRCS was a British scientist who did seminal work on protein denaturation, nutrition, snake toxins and other medical topics...

, the Institute director at the time. Morgan remained working there for over 50 years. Before taking up his position he did a variety of evening classes, including courses at the Case Technical Institute on the subjects of physiology and yeast microbiology and a course on biochemistry at Chelsea Polytechnic. While attending lectures at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

 he met Glen Anrep, who he worked for as an unpaid volunteer, thus getting the physiology qualification he needed to apply for a PhD.

Work at the Lister Institute

He initially worked with Dr Robert Robison identifying the structure of fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase discovered by Arthur Harden
Arthur Harden
Sir Arthur Harden FRS was an English biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 with Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin for their investigations into the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes....

 and William John Young
William John Young
William John Young was an English biochemist.-Beginnings and Education:William John Young was born on 26 January 1878 in Withington, Manchester, England. He received a B.Sc. in 1898 and a M.Sc. in 1902 at Owen College, Manchester...

. He succeeded in doing this, and studies on ester
Ester
Esters are chemical compounds derived by reacting an oxoacid with a hydroxyl compound such as an alcohol or phenol. Esters are usually derived from an inorganic acid or organic acid in which at least one -OH group is replaced by an -O-alkyl group, and most commonly from carboxylic acids and...

s made up a large chunk of his PhD thesis. In 1925 he attended a course on organic microanalysis at the University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....

 on the recommendation of Harden. He was awarded his PhD in 1927 and the Beit Memorial Research Fellowship, which allowed him to continue his research on sugars. He visited Graz repeatedly in later years, and saw its transformation from the relative happiness of the 1920s to the oppressive regime in the 1930s, at one point being questioned by a Nazi patrol.

In 1928 he was appointed as a biochemist at the Institute's Serum and Vaccine Department north of London, where in 1930 he successfully immunised a horse against Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...

. He attended the 1929 International Physiological Congress in Boston where he met several distinguished scientists including Walter Goebel and Michael Heidelberger
Michael Heidelberger
Michael Heidelberger was an American immunologist who is regarded as the father of modern immunology. He and Oswald Avery showed that the polysaccharides of pneumococcus are antigens, enabling him to show that antibodies are proteins...

, both of whom became close friends. In 1936 he was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, allowing him to study at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich under Tadeus Reichstein
Tadeus Reichstein
Tadeusz Reichstein was a Polish-born Swiss chemist and Nobel laureate.Reichstein was born into a Jewish family at Włocławek, Congress Poland, and spent his early childhood at Kiev, where his father was an engineer...

, who he also became friends with. He returned to England in 1938 to take up a position as Reader of Biochemistry at the Lister Institute, continuing to work on bacterial antigens before the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 forced him to stop his research due to the perceived risk of large bacterial cultures possibly being exposed to the atmosphere by bombing. Expecting casualties in the war he instead focused his attention on the structure of blood antigens, and was one of the first to insist on human-only individual samples, rather than pooled or animal samples. It took until 1965 before they worked out the complete chemical structure of A and B-type blood.

He retired from the Biochemistry department in 1968, staying as a guest researcher until 1972 when due to the poor state of the Institute he was asked to become the director again, which he did until 1975 when the institute was forced to close. From then until 1989 he worked in an honorary position at the MRC Clinical Research Centre.

Awards

He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1949, and from 1956 to 1960 he served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Council. He also served on the Royal Society Council until 1958, and was elected its Vice President in 1961, a position he held until 1964. In 1959 he was made a CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...

 and delivered the Royal Society's Croonian Lecture
Croonian Lecture
The Croonian Lectures are prestigious lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians.Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow one lectureship at both the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians...

. In 1968 he was awarded the Royal Medal
Royal Medal
The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal, is a silver-gilt medal awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important contributions to the advancement of natural knowledge" and one for "distinguished contributions in the applied sciences" made within the Commonwealth of...

of the Royal Society]] 'In recognition of his outstanding contributions to knowledge of the chemistry of blood-group substances, with special reference to genetical as well as immunological considerations'.

Personal life

He married Dorothy Irene Price (died 1993) on 25 April 1930, with whom he had two daughters and a son.
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