Address given by the Rt. Hon. Lord Hankey, P.C. at the memorial service to Sir Edward Mellanby, G.B.E., K.C.B., F.R.C.P., F.R.S., held at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Westminster, 17th March, 1955.

  • Maurice Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey
Date:
[1955?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Address given by the Rt. Hon. Lord Hankey, P.C. at the memorial service to Sir Edward Mellanby, G.B.E., K.C.B., F.R.C.P., F.R.S., held at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Westminster, 17th March, 1955. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    January 20th, a day or two later it came back to him in the form of a Memorandum to the Cabinet. At the moment, he had been feeling baffled and exasperated, like many another distinguished Scientist has been, by the well-nigh insuperable difficulty in getting the results of research work translated into action. In terms of rare emotion, at this, our last meeting on earth, he told me that this episode had given him new hope and inspiration. That was the beginning of our long and valued friendship. It was also a prelude to ever closer collaboration, in which Mellanby took a leading part, between the Medical Research Council and other Government Departments concerned, including the Committee of Imperial Defence [when appro¬ priate] , with a view to the common aim of safeguarding our people, should need arise, against those hidden foes of man¬ kind, which in past wars so often brought nations and armies to disaster—disease, malnutrition, contaminated water, biological and micro-biological pests of all kinds— the risks of which had been greatly increased by the menace of air bombardment. In the five years before the war, and in the six war years, I was a privileged witness and sometimes a collaborator, as Chairman of Committees or otherwise, in much of that work. During the war, among the public health measures on which Mellanby insisted were chlorination of water as a safeguard against typhoid; ample supplies of pure milk for children; the pasteurisation of these supplies; adding vitamins to margarine; raising and maintaining the