Retirement and the future of the Biochemistry Department

Correspondence and papers, 1972-1979.

Part of the controversy centered around the circumstances of a gift of £50,000 originally made by Lord Rank in 1967 (see F.316) for the establishment of a second Chair of Biochemistry in Chain's department. At the time, the College was unable to find the additional money needed for the financing of a Chair so, with Lord Rank's agreement, it was arranged that the money would be made available to Chain through the College for research Fellowships. Chain used only the interest for this purpose, leaving the principal intact, and at the beginning of 1973 he approached the Rank Trustees for a further donation of £50,000 in order to make up the amount needed for the endowment of a second Chair.

It was Chain's wish that the Rank Chair should be in the field of physiological biochemistry while his own successor as Professor and Head of the Biochemistry Department should be a chemical microbiologist, thus ensuring the continuation of his own main areas of research. After considerable correspondence with the Rector and others about suitable candidates for the two Chairs the posts were advertised in September 1973. B. Hartley (a molecular biologist) was appointed as Chain's successor (and Head of Department) in January 1974 and the Rank Chair was filled a year later by E.A. Barnard.

Chain bitterly contested both these appointments which he thought were contrary to the interests of the Biochemistry Department, since they would almost inevitably foreshadow the running down of the fermentation pilot plant and he also considered them to be a misuse of the funds which he had obtained for the endowment of the Rank Chair. The controversy continued until 1978 and was only finally resolved through the intervention of a legal adviser.