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©          Nature Publishing Group1977

Nature Vol. 266 21 April 1977 

obituary 
Sir Gerard Thornton 
MICROBIOLOGISTS, especially those who 
had the good fortune to work with 
him, will have heard wi-th sadness of 
the death of Sir Gerard Thornton on 
6 February at his home in St. Albans 
at the age of 85 . He is survived by his 
widow, Gerda, who is Danish, and 
by his son Peter who is Keeper of 
Woodwork and Furniture at the 
Victoria and Albert Museum. 

He will be remembered for his many 
original and important studies on so-il 
microbes, made in the course o-f a long 
career spent almost wholly at Roth-
amsted Experimental Station, Harpen-
den. He was educated at Radley and 
at New College Oxford and joined 
Rothamsted shortly after the end of 
the Great War where he had served as 
a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. 

In 1919, soil microbiology was a 
very rudimentary science, and Thorn-
ton's early work was much concerned 
with the devising of techniques for iso-
lating , identifying and counting various 
kinds of soil bacteria and in promoting 
parallel studies by others on soil fungi, 
protozoa and other groups. With his 
friend the late R. A. Fisher he 
pioneered the application of statistics 
to the problems of enumerating bac-
teria in soil. At this time he was also 
in contact with the great European soil 
microbiologists-Be.jjerinck, Winograd-
sky, Kluyver and later with Waksman. 
He had a special interest in the micro-
bial breakdown of aromatic disinfec-
tants in soil, and made a collection of 
bacteria able to utilise cresols, phenols 
and naphthalene as sole ca!'bon sources 
and elucidated some aspects of their 
physiology. This work was later to be-
come specially relevant to the dis-
covery, which he shared with others, 
of the selective hormone herbicides 
(chlorinated phenoxyacids), first pub-
lished in Nature (ISS, 498; 1945). 

His greatest influence, however, was 
through his distinguished research on 
biological nitrogen fixation, especially 
by root-nodulated leguminous plants. 
His detailed investigation of their 
microbiology , structure and physiology 
Ja,id the foundation for nearly all later 
work and led to practical applications 
in UK agriculture. His work estaiblished 
the 'bacteroid' as the nitrogen fixing 
site in the nodule and he described in 
detail the features of ineffective, non· 
fixing nodules. With his Rothamsted 
colleagues he was the first to use sera-

logical methods for identifying rhizobia 
and was associated with early work 
on bacteriophage and with studies on 
ecology of rhiwbia. Thornton was also 
the first to investigate effects of com-
petition between strains in the soil, a 
matter later shown to be important in 
the development of efficient 'inocu-
lants' for leguminous crops. Since his 
retirement in 1957 he continued to 
show the greatest interest in nitrogen 
fixation and in the striking advances 
made world-wide in Its study during the 
last decade, stimulated by the Inter-
national Biological Programme and the 
energy crisis. 

Thornton had wide interests in 
science and in the arts. He was especi-
ally interested in archaeology and in 
palaeontology and had the distinction 
of discovering a new species of 
plesiosaur (Rhomaleosaurus thorntonii) 
which can be seen at the British 
Museum, Natural History. 

Thornton became head of the De-
partment of Soil Microbiology in 1940. 
He was elected to the Fellowship of 
the Royal Society in 1941, of which he 
was Foreign Secretary from 1955-60 
and a Vice-President in 1959-60. He 
was actively involved in the organisa-
tion of the Society's Tercentenary cele-
brations and was knighted in 1960. He 
served on the Council of the Royal 
Sooiety and on many bodies concerned 
with microbiology and with agriculture. 

Thornton was a quiet, modest man, 
invariably considerate and courteous 
with a charm of manner rarely seen 
today. His colleagues remember him 
with respect and affection. 

P. S. Nutman 

D. E. Wheeler 
DR D. E. WHEELER who died on 
January 24, was a chemist who in 
twelve years as Managing Director of 
The Wellcome Foundation Limited 
and a further three as a Deputy Chair-
man was concerned particularly with 
the profitable translation, through de-
velopment and production, of the fruits 
of scientific research into important 
drugs and vaccines. As President of the 
Association of the British Pharma-
ceutical Industry he was a leading 
figure during an era when regulations 
were being established in the wake of 
the thalidomide tragedy. His integrity, 
relied upon alike by those in industry, 
medicine and government, was a major 

7S7 

factor in the harmonious and successful 
negotiations. As first-ever Chairman of 
the Spastics Society he brought together 
two organisations concerned with the 
welfare of spastics and presided over 
a massive expansion on the financial 
side, making possible the sponsorship 
of original research on a considerable 
scale. 

Denis Wheeler was born in Bristol on 
6 September, 1910, and graduated from 
Bristol University where he specialised 
in physical chemistry and carried out 
research work which led to a Ph.D. in 
1934. He was awarded a Salters' Fellow-
ship to study industrial organisation 
and practice in the United States. Part 
of the time was spent at Princeton 
University where he studied advanced 
physical chemistry. In later years he 
was to become Master of the Salters' 
Company and concerned with the con-
tinuation of this type of scientific 
exchange. 

On his return to Britain he joined the 
research department of Imperial 
Chemical Industries (Explosives) Ltd 
where he eventually became technically 
responsible for all acid production 
throughout the ICI organisation in 
Great Britain. In 1940 he was appointed 
research and development director of 
Hardman and Holden Ltd, chemical 
manufacturers. 

He joined the board of directors of 
The Wellcome Foundation Limited in 
January 1946, was appointed assistant 
managing director later that year, joint 
managing director in 1948, managing 
director in 1955 and a deputy chairman 
in 1967. He retired from the board for 
health reasons in 1970. He was awarded 
the CBE in 1965. 

In his early years with the Wellcome 
Foundation, Dr Wheeler was con-
cerned with the organisation of de-
velopment as a specific function, 
ensuring that the discoveries of the 
research laboratories could be produced 
in the appropriate formulations and on 
a sufficient scale to be administered to 
large numbers of humans or animals 
throughout the world . Whereas the re-
search laboratories of Wellcome had 
been largely independent of the com-
mercial company, he was able to con-
vince the scientists that their work 
could still retain its integrity and its 
impetus whilst being guided towards the 
discovery of essential medicines, the 
sale of which would provide the 
resources for further research. 

D. W. Adamson 


	D. E. Wheeler