Beale, (Alan) John (1923-2005), Virologist

Papers, mainly concerning vaccination science, policy and practice in respect of several diseases, including polio, tetanus, AIDS and BSE.

The catalogue is divided into three main parts. 1) Personal / biographical. Papers in this section are related to Beale's personal life, including his CVs, writings on family history and photographs. 2) Organisations and projects. These contain primarily organisational and administrative documents relating to the organisations and projects Beale was involved in; papers relating to specific subjects are listed under the subject files. 3) Subject files, organised alphabetically according to the various subjects Beale worked on in his lifetime, including polio, tetanus, AIDS, BSE, hepatitis B, bioterrorism, foot and mouth disease, pertussis encephalopathy and others.

(Alan) John Beale was born in Jarvis Brooke in Sussex in 1923, but grew up in Sissinghurst, Kent, where his father was a farmer. John Beale continued to live in Sissinghurst for most of his life, retiring there in 1989.

Beale trained at Guy's Medical School, where he won the Golding Bird Gold Medal and Prize for Bacteriology in 1945. Following his graduation, he joined the Public Health Laboratory Service in Northampton as a virologist in 1949. He also spent a year working at the Toronto Sick Children's Hospital, investigating viruses. This was followed by a period directing the Public Health Laboratory Service laboratory in Newcastle, before he returned to South East England in 1957 to work as head of virology at Glaxo Laboratories. At Glaxo, Beale worked with Jonas Salk to turn Salk's polio vaccine into something that could be manufactured in industrial quantities and distributed easily.

In 1969 he joined the Wellcome Research Laboratories as scientific director. Over the next twenty years, Beale was involved in the development of several breakthrough treatments including AZT and acyclovir (Zovirax). He also founded a department of molecular biology to explore the potential of the emerging field of genetic manipulation. He was also involved in projects with WHO, in particular, developing CVI, or Children's Vaccine Initiative, and was the editor of FEMS Microbiology Immunology Journal.

After his retirement he continued to be involved with vaccination science, providing advice on BSE and Foot and Mouth, advocating vaccination of the national herd instead of mass culling in the case of the latter. He also provided advice to the Swiss Government on how to keep cattle underground in the event of a nuclear attack. He also continued his close involvement with the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths, to which many generations of his family had belonged, and of which he had been Prime Warden in 1974. After retirement, Beale got interested in the history of medicine, and set out, among other things, to write a history of Henry Wellcome and the development of serotherapy and vaccines.

His interest in medicine may have been kindled by his childhood experience of looking after his fragile elder sister, Jeanne, who died in 1939 from kidney failure. He met and married Rosemary Harbrow, the sister in charge of the maternity ward, whilst working at Northampton.

John Beale became an active member of his local branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association following the death of his wife in 1999. He was involved in fundraising for the charity, as well as vetting projects they supported. He died 9 December 2005.

At Wellcome Collection:

WF/M/AV/O/03/17 contains an oral history interview with Beale along with supporting documentation.

WF/M/I/PR/080 contains photographs of Beale.