David Willis Wilson Henderson, 1903-1968

Abstract

David Willis Wilson Henderson was born in Glasgow on 23 July 1903, the only child of the late John Henderson, a chartered accountant, and his wife, Mary. He attended the Hamilton Academy where he perfected several ingenious methods of avoiding work in subjects he disliked, but acquired a genuine interest in science, though at this stage it was of a practical rather than academic nature. His initial leaning was to agriculture and he insisted on leaving school at the earliest possible moment to become articled to a farmer. He soon found that the application of science on this particular farm was scant and the same streak of impatience with arbitrarily imposed authority, so apparent in Henderson’s later life, resulted in a sudden and dramatic termination of the apprenticeship. Though somewhat sceptical, his parents agreed to his proposal to read for a degree at Glasgow University. He chose agricultural bacteriology as his major subject, enrolled under Professor J. F. Malcolm, D.Sc., at the West of Scotland Agricultural College, and graduated in 1926. His first post was as lecturer in bacteriology at King’s College, University of Durham, where he started to lay the foundations of his research career, and was subsequently awarded an M.Sc. degree in 1930 for work on anaerobic infection in lambs. In this same year he married his first wife, Beatrice Mary Davenport, daughter of Sir Westcott Abell, K.B.E., at that time Professor of Naval Architecture at the affiliated Armstrong College. Prospects of advancement in Durham University looked poor and with this added need to provide for the future, Henderson sought a move to London.