Dale, Sir Henry Hallett (1875-1968)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0117 HD
Held at	: Royal Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://royalsociety.org/collections/ ›
Full title	: Dale, Sir Henry Hallett (1875-1968)
Date(s)	: 1888-1968
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 20 volumes, 850 files, 28 boxes of reprints, four boxes of slides, 71 medals and awards
Name of creator(s)	: Dale | Sir | Henry Hallett | 1875-1968 | Knight | physiologist, pharmacologist and physician
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Son of a London businessman, Dale was educated at Tollington Park College, London; The Leys School, Cambridge; and Trinity College, Cambridge. He received first class honours in the natural science tripos in 1898, and succeeded Ernest Rutherford to the Coutts-Trotter studentship at Trinity. He was influenced by the physiologists of the 'Cambridge School', Michael Foster, W.H. Gaskell, J.N. Langley and H.K. Anderson. He began his clinical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital (1900-1903), receiving his B.Chir. in 1903 and his M.D. in 1909. He was George Henry Lewes Student and then Sharpey Student with the department of physiology of University College under Starling and Bayliss (1902-1904).

In 1904 he accepted the offer of a research post in physiology from (Sir) Henry Wellcome at the Wellcome Research Laboratories, where he worked for eighteen months as pharmacologist and the remainder of his ten years there as Director. In 1936, on the death of Sir Henry Wellcome, he became a trustee of the Wellcome Trust, becoming its chairman 1938-1960 and continuing as scientific advisor to 1968. In fact he continued to give advice until his death at age ninety three.

In 1914 he became Director of the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology of the Institute for Medical Research, which in 1920 became the National Institute for Medical Research at Hampstead. In 1923 he became chairman of the Committee of Departmental Directors, and in 1928, the first director of the Institute, a post he held until 1942, when he retired and became Director of the Royal Institution as well as Fullerian professor of chemistry until 1946. While secretary of the Royal Society (1925-1935) he changed the form of publication of the obituary notices so they were published annually in one volume, and while president (1940-1945) he not only held a meeting of the Royal Society outside Britain for the first time, in India, but also raised the number of Fellows elected to twenty five, and enabled the revolutionary concept of admitting women as Fellows from 1945.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Sir Henry Hallett Dale, comprising official correspondence, personal files, diaries, lectures and related correspondence, reprints, and miscellaneous items, such as photographs, and slides. Much of the material deals with the war years 1940-1945. The supplementary collection added by Lady Todd (Dale's daughter) in 1978 consisted of additional papers and correspondence, with Dale's medals and awards.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The collection is divided into: personal papers; honorary degrees, diplomas, medals and other awards; photographs and slides; lectures, conferences and broadcasts; publications (including reprints); official correspondence relating to the Royal Society, Royal Society of Medicine, British Council, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories, National Institute for Medical Research, Royal Institution, other UK scientific societies, other international scientific societies, non-scientific societies, research institutes, universities, pharmaceutical companies, government departments and agencies, trusts, official commissions and private clubs; private correspondence arranged by individual or subject and miscellaneous private correspondence.

Conditions governing access:

OPEN - but some items restricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Feb 2009.