MRC Medical Cyclotron Unit

The collection falls into two parts: committee records relating to the Radium Beam Therapy Research Committee and allied matters, 1933-1945, and extensive material on treatment carried out by the Unit using the radium beam and linear accelerator between 1934 and 1960.

The collection is divided into sections as follows:

A. Radium Beam Therapy Research Committee

B. Case Registers, etc

These papers were deposited at the library at Wellcome Collection by the MRC Cyclotron Unit at Hammersmith Hospital in May 1987.

Additional deposits were made in June 2001 and January 2013 and additional papers were deposited by the family of a former staff member in February 2017.

At Wellcome Collection:

Because much of this work was carried out in conjunction with the Strangeways Research Laboratory, readers are advised to consult the records of that body (SA/SRL) and the papers of F.G. Spear, its Deputy Director (PP/FGS). The papers of Constance A.P. Wood, Director of the MRC Radiotherapeutic Research Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, 1941-1962 (GC/95) and the diaries and correspondence of John Gallop, Senior Engineer on the project durings its development (GC/160) include useful accounts of the evolution of the Cyclotron Unit.

The following is an interim description of material that has been acquired since this collection was catalogued. This description may change when cataloguing takes place in future:

Sixteen boxes of material were received in June 2001 (acc.943), consisting of papers, articles and research reports relating to neutron therapy, radiotherapy, nuclear therapy and x-ray therapy, 1948-1987; and slides, negatives, films and photographs of cyclotrons, staff, graphs, experiments, buildings, equipment, and patients, 1950s-1990s.

One box of material, and one volume were received in January 2013 (acc.1975), consisting of committee minutes and papers, history of the Cyclotron project, photographs, progress reports, and booklets, 1944-1997; a wooden box of glass plates of the cyclotron and its construction; and an outsize photograph album of the building of the cyclotron.

One box of material was received in February 2017 (acc.2340) consisting of some photographs and a book commemorating the Unit's silver jubilee.