Hedley Marston

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Hedley Marston
Hedley Marston
Born	26 August 1900 Bordertown, South Australia
Died	25 August 1965
Nationality	Australian
Fields	biochemistry
Alma mater	University of Adelaide

Hedley Ralph Marston (26 August 1900 – 25 August 1965) was an Australian biochemist who worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Marston was born in Bordertown, South Australia and educated at Unley District High School, Adelaide, where he met Mark Oliphant. He attended the University of Adelaide but did not complete a degree due to failing Mathematics.

Marston was appointed a demonstrator in the university's department of physiology and biochemistry after a chance meeting with Professor Thorburn Robertson in 1922. On 1 March 1928 he joined Robertson's staff in the division of animal nutrition, CSIRO, Adelaide. Marston greatly impressed Robertson, and became the division's acting-chief on Robertson's death in 1930.

Marston claimed a break-through in the treatment of 'coast disease' in sheep; overwhelming evidence, however points to the original discovery by Dick Thomas and E. W. L. Lines.

In the 1950s, Marston's research into fallout from the British nuclear tests at Maralinga brought Marston into bitter conflict with the government appointed Atomic Weapons Tests Safety Committee. He was vindicated posthumously by the McClelland Royal Commission, which found that significant radiation hazards existed at many of the Maralinga test sites long after the tests.

Marston was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science in 1957 by the Australian National University.

[edit] References

• Roger Cross, 'Marston, Hedley Ralph (1900 - 1965)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, MUP, 2000, pp 310-312.

[edit] External links

• Hedley Ralph Marston 1900-1965 by E. J. Underwood, Australian Academy of Science.
• Book Review: "Fallout: Hedley Marston and the British bomb tests in Australia", by Tim Sherratt, Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 14, no. 2, November 2002, pp. 209-10.