The Penicillin Man

All the pharmaceutical firms in Britain were too fully committed to war work to undertake the commercial production of penicillin. Florey and Heatley went to the United States of America to get that started. Fortunately, using apparatus unavailable in England, a method of deep culture of the penicillium was discovered. Also a different strain of the fungus was isolated that gave a much increased yield of penicillin. Lords Beaverbrook and Moran ensured that Fleming's discovery was well publicised, thereby getting funds for St Mary's Hospital. Fleming was by no means averse to basking in the spotlight but he did occasionally refer to the work done in Oxford. He shared the Nobel Prize with Florey and Chain, was knighted, elected to the Royal Society and received a multitude of other awards. In 1941 Florey was elected to the Royal Society mainly for work before his quest for penicillin commenced. He also received many awards, was knighted and later received a Life Peerage. Chain also was elected to the Royal Society, received many awards and was knighted. Heatley whose work had been essential received no recognition during his working life. However his widow says that he was never embittered by this oversight. He was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 1978 and 12 years later Oxford University repented of its neglect and awarded him the first Penicillin Fellowship at Lincoln College, named the lab in which he worked for 42 years The Heatley Laboratory and instituted an annual lecture and a lectureship in his honour. Thirty years after the penicillin work was completed Oxford made him its first non-medical Honorary Doctor of Medicine. Heatley married Mercy Bing, a medical graduate of Oxford and the daughter of the founder and first Headmaster of Rockport School Holywood, Co. Down which has honoured Heatley by naming their Science Laboratory " The Heatley Laboratory ". Rockport School is celebrating its centenary this year. There is another connection to Northern Ireland. The War Office sent Florey and Lieutenant Colonel Ian Fraser, RAMC (later Sir Ian) of the Royal Group of Hospitals, Belfast to North Africa to test penicillin in the treatment of war casualties. The taciturn Florey did not enjoy the company of the ebullient Fraser! The Mould in Dr Florey's Coat was no accident. The three collaborators and the pathologist Sanders had penicillium spores rubbed into clothing so that, if in the war …