Morrell Draper

Dr Morrell Henry Draper OBE FRSE (1921-2005) was an Australian-born medical researcher and administrator. He was also a noted amateur athlete. He was an expert on toxicology particularly in relation to carcinogens and his research led to the new term of metademography.^[1] He specialised in the study of heavy metals and their toxic effects.

Life

The grave of Morrell Draper, Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh

He was born in Adelaide in Australia on 10 July 1921. He was educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide. Whilst at college he began running and reached the level of champion for South Australia. He graduated MB BSc in 1944 and served one year as resident house surgeon at the Royal Adelaide Hospital before being gazetted as a Captain into the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1945, but joined the Second World War too late to see active service. In 1946 following demob he became a Research Fellow at the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

In 1949 he won a travelling scholarship and left Australia to go to Cambridge University in England where he gained a doctorate (PhD) in neurophysiology in 1955. Here he worked with Alan Hodgkin, Andrew Huxley, Richard Keynes and Peter Lewis, and was greatly influenced by their work. He also worked with Silvio Weidmann on the use of microelectrodes in treatment of heart conditions. In athletics the university awarded him a Blue and he ran last leg in the Oxford-Cambridge relay race of 1951, winning the race despite strong opposition.^[2]

In 1956 he moved north to Edinburgh University to begin lecturing in Physiology. Despite rising to Senior Lecturer he left the university in 1962 to take up the post of Principal Scientific Officer at the Agricultural Research Council. Here he rose to be Deputy Director.^[3]

In 1973 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 1976 he moved to the British Council in London and from there to the DHSS where he took over the role of testing and authenticating the safety of new drugs. From there he moved to international level, joining the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) in 1980. Here he worked in both Copenhagen and Geneva.^[4]

He retired in 1984 but continued as a consultant to the Health and Safety Directorate in Britain in relation to issues of toxicology. He died on 1 October 2005.^[5] He is buried in the modern western section of Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh.

Family

He married Kathleen Mary Rainsford (1922-2012) in 1944 and had three daughters and one son: Genevieve, Susan, Elizabeth and Andrew.^[6]

References