Cosy Corners in Depression and War
Autobiography of
Joan Hughes
The story of one person's nests
Birmingham University 1965-1966
[Interviews and applications 1965]
During the middle part of 1965 I stayed with Aunt Violet in West London and applied for employment. I got plenty of interviews but no job offers. One interview was at Port Sunlight. Here I stayed the night and in the evening watched a lightning storm send jagged fork lightning into the sea from the picture window of the hotel living room. It was exciting to watch, though dangerous for anyone out in the sea in a small boat. Only twice in my life have I seen this kind of storm. Once on the Isle of Wight, and now on Merseyside.
I was given a fair interview for the post of analytical chemist in the soap factory, but I expect there were younger male applicants, who would be preferred. Another interview took place at a gas-works in London, and the laboratory seemed smelly. When I had a day trip away from home, I enjoyed it. There was another trip to a hospital in the North of England and this time I stayed in the nurses' home. But I was glad when I failed that interview, since I disliked hospitals. My friend Jennifer told me about a post of supervisor for the lab in a London hospital in which she worked. I was given a very fair interview and believed that I would have been given this post if I had shown more enthusiasm. But I did not want to be supervisor over people who had worked in the lab for many years. One of these was Mary and she was a qualified hospital laboratory technician, but she refused to supervise anyone. The doctor told me he would have given her the post if she had been willing to accept it. Jennifer was an unqualified laboratory technician and thus was ineligible for promotion.
There was some radiochemistry being carried out in this lab, in which I had no experience. The doctor pointed out some lead blocks placed in a fume cupboard, and a row of small beakers standing behind these.
"It is quite safe," said the doctor. "The lead blocks are an effective shield."
It did not look safe to me, because the fume-cupboard looked cluttered and dirty.
While I was at home, Aunt Violet talked to me incessantly, and it was difficult to fill in the applications for work, while she was talking, so I went out most days and sat in the local public library to do my day's work of form-filling. After about a month I realised that I was not making progress, so decided that perhaps I should at last have a stab at doing what I had always wanted to do, which was research into new aspects of chemistry.
With this end in mind I applied to as many universities as possible. At this time of the year, research studentships were advertised in the broadsheet newspapers. I think that I applied to almost all the Universities with the exception of Oxford and Cambridge, where I knew that I did not stand a chance.
This effort produced only one interview. I was summoned to Manchester University where I was asked questions on organic chemistry, to which I was unable to reply, as I had not being studying recently; my work as an analytical chemist had not made use of this type of theoretical knowledge. I was very good at looking up information in libraries and absorbing it quickly, but had very little advanced theoretical knowledge in my head. I was not a lecturer, but a bench worker, so had little use in remembering the more esoteric theory. The one place where I would have succeeded quickly was in analytical research, but unfortunately I did not realise that at Birmingham University, there was an analytical department which could use my experience.
Birmingham
The application to Birmingham University was one of my last, and when I
was summoned to an interview there, I had almost given up hope. I was
pleasantly surprised to be asked very few theoretical questions. The
department had already accepted a student who had previously worked at the
Government Chemist and were favourably disposed towards me. Moreover
Professor Belcher preferred mature students of about thirty years of age.
At 37 I was a little old, but I was told that there were some students
older than me.
Analytical chemistry was probably not popular with the "high fliers" -
that is people who had just left University with good degrees, but
Professor Belcher preferred plodders, with some years of experience as
laboratory workers behind them, and I was told that I could start on a one
year course at the beginning of September to do research for an M.Sc.
degree.
I jumped at the chance, as I had always wanted to do research in
chemistry. I would have liked to have done a Ph.D., but as there was no
grant available for me, I knew that I could not afford three years at
University. Professor Belcher had been able to get £7 per week
allowance
for me from a charity, which I gladly accepted. In a cheap hostel I knew I
could live on about £10 per week at this time, which meant drawing
three or
four pounds from savings. This did not allow anything for social life, but
I would have no time for this. The M.Sc. research degree normally took
two years, with an extra year for those proceeding to Ph.D., and I had
accepted that I may have to do double the normal hours in order to complete
my M.Sc. by research in one year.
My immediate problem was finding somewhere to live in Birmingham,
within travelling distance of the University. I scanned the Birmingham
telephone directory and found the address of a convent acting as a "hostel
for working women". I had not time to look for rooms in Birmingham, as I
was at present living with my aunt in London, and would have needed
somewhere to stay while I looked. I thought that I might leave the convent
hostel later and take a furnished room when I had settled down.
When I arrived in Birmingham at the end of July [1965] it was about
five weeks
too early to start work at the University, so I decided to take a temporary
clerical job. There was work of this kind easily available from all the
employment agencies. I usually applied for routine book-keeping work. It
was badly paid but enough to live on, so with the idea of economising, and
not withdrawing savings until necessary, I took a job as temporary clerk at
Lucas, which made motor car engines. The work was easy and the office
manager was kind, so I enjoyed this temporary work.
The hostel seemed peculiar from the start and I did not like it very
much. There were about eight working girls there, but no-one over twenty
years of age except me, and I was 37. Nevertheless I thought the
accommodation would suit me while I out all day working at Lucas.
There was only one nun doing the cooking for all the girls. At first
she was friendly and sometimes chatted to me, saying she enjoyed cooking
for the girls. But she said that she had not really wanted to be a nun and
that her father in Ireland had put her into a convent when a young woman.
She also told me that she found saying her office tedious, and would have
liked more leisure time to watch the television.
I was sad when I heard this, as this was the first nun with whom I had
ever chatted. I had thought that all the nuns in the Catholic Church had
sincere vocations and were dedicated to their work. This was rather an
astonishing confession that I heard from this sister.
Several other things in the hostel disturbed me. One of these was that
though the cooking was excellent, and we were being given strawberries and
cream for a sweet in the evening, the strawberries which had been picked
from the convent garden had not been washed. I could see some dirt on them.
The apron which the nun wore for working in the kitchen was also very
dirty.
After two weeks at work where I was getting on well, I noticed a
severe pain in my chest and stomach. I wanted to continue at work at Lucas
as I thought the pain was due to "nerves." I remembered my severe
headaches which had been painful, but due to "nerves" and thought this was
a similar situation. But the officer supervisor noticed that I could barely
walk across the room, and when I said I was in pain, told me to go home.
Thus ended my temporary job. When he heard that I was living in a convent
hostel, I was told "the nuns will look after you."
I thought that they would look after me but unfortunately this was not
the case. Next day I had severe stomach pains and diarrhoea and stayed in
bed with weakness. I found that I would not be served an evening meal
unless I struggled downstairs, so this I did. The nun told me I could not
stay in her hostel, because I had too many books in my room. I went back
to bed and next day felt very hungry. This seemed part of the illness. I
am not sure whether I could get downstairs for the evening meal, but may
have missed it.
The two girls sharing my room were going to a dance that
evening and I asked them to bring me back a bar of chocolate, because I
felt so hungry. I gave them the money for this. However when they returned
late at night they told me that they had not been able to get any chocolate
and returned my money. I was very disappointed and did not know what to do.
In the middle of the night I felt somewhat better, and resolved to go
downstairs and get some dry bread from the nun's kitchen. My hunger seemed
so intense that anything would have satisfied it.
However when I got downstairs I found that the refrigerator was locked.
I had never seen a locked refrigerator before and thought that this was
outrageous. There was not a scrap of bread about anywhere. I went to see if
I could find the nun, but discovered that she did not sleep on the
premises. The main door to the hostel was locked. I thought that this was
very dangerous, and wondered how we would have got out if there had been a
fire, for none of us held a key. The next day the nun told me that she was
going to transfer me to
Rubery Hill Mental
Hospital.
"Why are you going to do this?" I asked. "I have got stomach trouble,
not mental illness."
"Because I have seen that you take those red tablets called Nardil,"
she answered.
I had registered with a doctor who had been recommended by this nun.
He had discovered that I was taking
Nardil when I had attended his surgery
one evening to have my ears syringed. He had not been an obliging doctor
for he had told me that he could not do this at evening surgery. As I did
not wish to lose time at my temporary clerical job, I had to abandon the
idea of having them done.
The next morning the doctor called. He did not offer me any medicine
for my stomach pain. Instead he informed me that he had already called an
ambulance to take me to Rubery Hill Hospital. I was astounded that this
could be done.
Then he tried a more kindly tone, saying that I should easily be able
to get into St. Francis Chaplaincy University Hostel. I doubted this.
These hostels were meant for undergraduates.
The working girls had never objected to my company. I had never told
them that I was taking Nardil. I was infuriated, but could do nothing as I
was too weak to go and look for alternative accommodation or pack up my
possessions. These were all left in my wardrobe at the hostel.
About half an hour later there was a loud knock at the door. In my
weak condition I dressed and went downstairs. I found that there were two
severe looking ambulance men at the door in addition to a driver. I
wondered what was happening, and indeed if I really lived in England, as I
was being treated like a criminal.
The van had dark coloured glass in the
windows which meant that I could not see out. I did not know Birmingham and
did not know in which direction I was being taken. One of the ambulance men
sat on each side of me. I was too terrified to speak. I had committed no
crime. My only offence had been to develop a high temperature with stomach
trouble while staying in this convent hostel.
It flashed through my mind that the stomach trouble may have been due
to dirty food, and the fact that the nun may not have washed her hands
properly before preparing food.
At the hospital I was put into a bed in a large ward, and a doctor
examined me. I was allowed to stay in bed, as I had chest pains, stomach
pain and a raised temperature. I believe that I was given a few
antibiotics. As I laid in bed, I thought that as soon as I was strong
enough to get up, I would go and search for alternative accommodation.
In fact, the first day I felt strong enough to get up, I went and sat
in the day room with other patients. A male nurse came round and handed me
two white tablets.
"What are these?" I asked.
"Largactil", he answered.
I did not know what this was but swallowed the tablets. Within half an
hour I started to go to sleep in the chair. I complained to the male nurse
that I did not want to go to sleep during the day-time.
"Oh, the tablets always have this effect at first. You will get used to
it".
"I will do no such thing", I thought, and resolved not to take any
more.
The next day, though still suffering from stomach pains, I resolved to
go out immediately after breakfast and do some business. Firstly, I wanted
to pack up my possessions at the convent hostel, and later to look for some
alternative accommodation.
When I got to the convent, the nun complained that my books were taking
up too much room in the bedroom, even though I had contrived to stack them
all inside my wardrobe. I spent the day packing my books and clothes and a
few other items such as my 35 mm camera into two large cardboard boxes and
left them in the convent storeroom.
Meanwhile I found that I had received a letter from Professor Belcher
asking me to call at the University to collect some scientific papers which
he wanted me to read in preparation for starting my research work. I had
to phone the University and explain that I was ill, and that it may be a
further week before I could call there.
The next day the stomach pains returned violently and I had to rest,
but I managed to refuse the largactil tablets. As I was a voluntary
patient, I could go out of the hospital whenever I liked. All I needed was
to regain my strength.
On Wednesday I looked into the windows of estate agents and found that
the cheapest rooms or flats were £10 per week. I was not willing to
pay
more than £3 per week, as my total income was £7 per week, and
the
shortfall had to be made up by withdrawing from savings I had made during
my years with the Government Chemist. In the evening I called at the
convent. I found that one of the girls had removed my camera from one of my
boxes and was examining it. When I asked why she was handling my property,
she said that she was only looking at it. Nevertheless I felt that my
property might be unsafe in the convent storeroom, so next day I hired a
taxi and had the two boxes transferred to the luggage storeroom at the
hospital. When I arrived with this amount of luggage, the nurses
complained that it was taking up too much space.
In my defence, I could not say that I was leaving the hospital soon,
because I did not want anyone to know this, in case they tried to detain me
in this hospital. On Thursday and Friday I continued my search for
accommodation, but could find nowhere cheaper than the £10 per week
rooms,
because I had no time to go to the cheaper accommodation agencies, which
were off the main routes into town. At the week-end, I collapsed again
with stomach pains and stayed in bed at the hospital.
On the following Monday, I went out and thought that if I did not get
out of the hospital very quickly, I would stand in danger of having my plan
to do research at the University extinguished. So I resolved to take one
of the £10 flats from the estate agent for which I had to pay one
month's
rent in advance. This meant withdrawing £40 from savings, but I
thought
this was worth it. I resolved to look for cheaper accommodation when I had
settled down at the University.
The next morning I went to the public phone and ordered a taxi, and
hastily gathered up my belongings which I had left in the locker near my
bed into two plastic bags. I realised that I looked rather untidy holding
these plastic bags, but told the nurses that I was leaving immediately.
They laughed at me and told me that I was very ill and should not leave the
hospital. I replied that I had work to do, and wanted to start immediately.
As I left the ward they shook their fists at me. Ignoring their shouts, I
went to the luggage room and shifted my boxes into the road just outside
the hospital main entrance. It took some time for the taxi to arrive, and I
was glad that I had ordered it before assembling my luggage, because I was
afraid that the nurses would summon the psychiatrist in order to detain me.
This doctor had already been angry with me, when I came into the hospital
in time for tea on Friday afternoon. He had asked me where I had been all
the week and said he had not had an opportunity to examine me. I had told
him that I wanted to get on with my job at the University and had no wish
to be examined. I just wanted a prescription for the tablets which suited
me called
Nardil, an anti-depressant and did not want to take any
largactil, which was a strong tranquilliser. I wanted to work not go to
sleep!
When the taxi reached the flat, I knew I had to rest as my stomach pain
was still quite severe. Perhaps to-morrow I would find a new G.P. But I
was convinced that the stomach pain would pass away with rest.
I was very thankful that I had managed to escape to the peace of an
empty flat and had not told the hospital my address.
Unfortunately my financial documents were detained in the hospital
office. I had kept my cheque book on my person fortunately and could pay
the immediate bills. But I needed my Post Office Savings Book, and a Co-
operative Building Society deposit book in which I had most of my savings.
I knew that I needed a week's rest to regain my strength so phoned the
University and told them I would be starting work with them the following
Monday. I would be a week late starting. It was now the beginning of
September.
Birmingham University [September 1965]
On my first day at the University, I went to see Dr. Stephen and was
allowed to borrow his original Ph.D. thesis. In this was described the
preparation and use of reagents such as 4-amino-4'-chlorobiphenyl. This
had been used to determine trace amounts of sulphate ion in 1953. My work
was intended to determine even smaller traces of sulphate and nitrate by
using this and other organic reagents.
Professor Belcher also offered me a small paid job. One evening per
week, I was engaged to coach his 12-year old son in mathematics. I had to
catch the bus to his house, and teach his son arithmetic, including
logarithms, and elementary algebra and geometry. His son was very polite,
tried hard, but was not very good at mathematics. For this work, I was
paid 12 shillings and sixpence per week, which I usually spent at the
hairdressers. My hair was very greasy, needed washing at least once per
week, and facilities for doing this at home were poor. Although I often
worked from 8 am in the morning until 10 pm at night, once per week I took
a three-hour lunch break, which included doing shopping for week-end meals
and having my hair done.
The laboratory was normally open on Saturday mornings and we were
expected to work until 1 pm. On Saturday afternoons I would sometimes take
a rest after having lunch in the canteen, but often examined my research
notes and planned the work for the following week in the laboratory. On
Sunday mornings I went to a Church run by Jesuits in Edgbaston, and cooked
my lunch at home on two gas rings. On Sunday afternoons I usually felt the
need to rest at home.
Once I had completed my first week's work at the University, I felt
confident enough to travel up to Rubery Hill Hospital, call at the
administrative office and reclaim my financial documents. After my
experiences at the convent hostel, I would not let this hospital have my
home address, but on producing identification I was relieved to get back my
savings account books. Soon I would need to withdraw some of this money to
live on, as insufficient money was coming into my current account. I left
these documents in a safe place at home. I felt relieved to be fully in
control of my own affairs once more.
A small part of the introduction to my research thesis was written at
home, and this follows.
"Trace analysis may be defined as the determination of a very small
amount of an inorganic or organic constituent present in a very much larger
weight of material. It is necessary in most industries to examine products
for the presence of contaminants, which may have very damaging effects on
the products, or be a toxic danger to the consumer. Chemical analysis for
traces of these contaminants is often necessary; the purity of the
chemicals required to carry out the analysis must also be checked. In
product development, and in biochemical and medical research, trace
analysis is often needed. With the ever increasing production of chemicals
or products containing chemicals whose long-term effects are unknown, trace
analysis is needed to make sure that these chemicals are not accumulating
in the soil, water or atmosphere of the earth, where they may be
transmitted to plant and animal life.
Sulphates and sulphur are amongst the commonest trace constituents of
organic matter, and sulphates are usually present in water. The
determination of small amounts of sulphate or sulphur is required in the
coal, rubber, petroleum, water-treatment, paper, pesticide and plastics
industries. It is necessary to analyze fine chemicals for sulphate
impurities, and to determine sulphur in sulphur-containing organic
compounds; and sub-micro analysis for sulphates or sulphur is frequently
required in medical and biochemical research."
The purpose of a University Department like ours was to produce general
analytical methods, which we hoped could be used and adapted by any
industry, public analyst or other user.
I was extremely fired by enthusiasm for this work and on some days
worked exceptionally long hours. I can remember arriving by an early bus
at 7am in the University laboratory and working until 11 pm at night. I
could not keep this up for long, but did this sometimes when the work
appeared to be going well, and I thought I was on the verge of discovering
new methods.
Unfortunately it was my mistaken belief that I needed the drug
Nardil
to give me the energy to do this work. I found a new GP who was willing to
write prescriptions for a month's supply of this drug. At this time
prescriptions were free and easily available. I told Dr. Stephen that I
was taking Nardil and I could see that he did not approve. However he
smoked a pipe and often walked round the laboratory smoking this, so I did
not feel guilty at taking Nardil. I thought "Dr Stephen needs his pipe to
keep going and I need the Nardil."
We were both wrong; but the kind of research which would have convinced
us of this, interested neither of us.
The flat was very comfortable. I had a bedsitting room and a separate
kitchen. The neighbours were quiet, and when at home I could write up my
notes easily. However at £10 per week I knew that I could not afford
to
stay there. I had to withdraw this amount from savings, because my
expenses on food, fares heat and light absorbed my total income which was
only £7 per week, obtained from a University charity.
On Saturday afternoons I had to look for alternative accommodation. I
did not find this until I had been in the flat for four weeks and had had
to withdraw another £40 to pay another four weeks' rent in advance.
The
new bedsitting room cost only £2 per week, but for four weeks I had
to pay
the rent on two lots of accommodation. I gave four weeks notice to my
present landlord, but did not move immediately.
At the end of October I moved to the attic bedsitting room in City
Road, Birmingham.
In the old flat I had had the luxury of a private toilet and bathroom.
Here such facilities were shared. Though I was quite used to sharing, in
this house it did not work out satisfactorily. It was necessary to put one
shilling in the meter in order to have a bath, but unfortunately the water
did not heat for an hour. I used to put my shilling in on Sunday mornings
at 6 am. Then I would go back to bed, and have a bath at 8 am.
This procedure worked satisfactorily for two weeks. On the third week,
when I got up at 8 am all my hot water had gone. I discovered that the
person living in the room below me, would creep into the bathroom at about
7 am and steal my water. My money was so short that I could not afford to
lose it. I would keep awake and on tenterhooks on Sunday mornings and keep
going to check if the water was hot. But as I was already so tired with
the week's work I could not always do this and often had my bath water
stolen during the next few weeks.
At the University I was told that I could have a free bath in the
student's union building. However this was at the other end of the campus,
and it took about half an hour to walk down there. As this facility was
closed at about 7 pm each evening, I could not usually spare time from my
work to do this. Even my meal times were hurried. During the week I ate
lunch at 1 pm and tea at about 6 pm in the nearby students' refectory.
These meals took all my weekly cash allowance, after fares, room heating
and the hairdressers and launderette had been paid for.
Then one day I was asked to visit a department containing a large
centrifuge, which I needed to use. It was at the other side of the
University building in which I worked. This meant a long walk down
corridors. I saw a ladies' toilet and entered to use it. Inside I found a
bathroom. There was a cleaner there and she told me that I could use this
bath if I wished. Thereafter I had a free bath each week in the University
building in which I worked. It was little used. Apparently, most students
did not know that this facility existed.
At home, I never did much cleaning; but did my washing up at the sink
in the corner of the room. In this room there was cold water only.
Usually I boiled a kettle for washing up.
One day I phoned my aunt in London and she told me she could no longer
look after my excess scientific books. I had planned to collect them one
day when I had time. I asked her why and she told me she did not want to
dust them. I could not understand this, because I hardly felt the need to
dust my books, and the top of the book-case took only five minutes to dust.
However, this meant I had to take a day off from work, which I could
ill spare and go to London to collect these books. These had to be packed
into cardboard boxes and sent to Birmingham by carrier. These were books
which I was not currently using, on subjects I had had to study for my
first degree, such as physics, mathematics and geology. When they arrived I
left them in one corner of my room, not having the time to unpack them.
My main concern was my work. For the next three months, I was busy
preparing samples of the dye Sulphonazo.
This had first been prepared by a chemist called Budesinsky working in
Czechoslovakia. His paper had been translated into English. At this time
several English people including my former colleague, Mr Fleet, who I first
met in the Government Chemist pesticide lab, had gone to work in
Czechoslovakia for a year. He did this following a Ph.D. at Birmingham. He
had been working with a different reagent than me, but it had also been
used for determining traces of sulphate. Though this was a "Communist"
country, a fairly liberal policy prevailed with regard to the exchange of
scientific workers. We had Klara, a 26 year old student working as a
research assistant in Professor Belcher's department, following her degree
in Czechoslovakia.
One of the other interests of Professor Belcher which had been
developed further in Czechoslovakia was the polarograph, or falling mercury
electrode, which was used for determining trace metals. I had never had the
opportunity to find out how this worked, being unable to understand the
textbooks on the subject, which were full of advanced mathematics. I was
much more at home with spectrophotometric methods which were used
extensively in food analysis and with paper chromatography which I had used
in the determination of traces of pesticide at the Laboratory of the
Government Chemist.
There were three student canteens at the University of Birmingham, in a
building near the library and administrative offices. There were three
floors with the cheapest canteen on the top floor, moderate prices on the
middle floor, and the most expensive at ground level.
I was short of money, nevertheless went to the moderately priced
canteen, as I could not tolerate the stodgy food served in the "cheapery".
My male colleagues went to the very cheap canteen at mid-day, usually
worked from 9 to 5 and presumably had better food cooked by their wives in
the evening. Some were unmarried; one young man said he lived in very
dingy lodgings; these being very cheap, suited him. All the woman students
were single. Most of these were 30 years of age or over. One woman, who
came from the Netherlands had had a career as a secretary, before giving
this up to do a chemistry degree, and obtaining a post as a research
assistant, which financed her M.Sc. For this privilege, she had to do
about three hours routine work per day. The rest of the time she was able
to devote to her research. Unlike me she had two years for completion of
the M.Sc. degree.
There was a man of 44 who was financed by his company. Until then he
had been a salesman, though originally qualified in chemistry, and having
experience of analysis in his early career. He had been advised by his firm
to return to bench work as an analyst and was being retrained for this
work. He was using ion exchange resins. He told me that Professor Belcher
who was his personal supervisor was making him work exceptionally hard. He
had other problems. His mother who had a long-term illness was now in
hospital, but her flat had to remain empty ready for her return. He was
worried about this, as he did not believe his mother would regain
sufficient health to look after herself in this flat. There was one other
older man. He was 50, and I was extremely surprised to find that he was a
research student. Apparently he had been made redundant from his previous
position as technical college lecturer, and Professor Belcher had invited
him to do a Ph.D. He was a personal friend of the Professor. He main
occupation appeared to be incinerating samples in a furnace and weighing
the ash. He never divulged what he was doing.
One person with whom I became quite friendly was called Aleya. She came
from Iraq, was westernised and said that she intended to settle in England.
Sometimes I went to the canteen at mid-day with her. It was in this canteen
that I first tasted water-melon. These slices of red, watery fruit were
served as a dessert. I had not been in the habit of buying fruit apart from
apples, oranges and bananas and strawberries during June and July. The
exotic fruits and year-round supplies which are in the shops to-day were
then unknown.
Colin was another student who was kind to me and showed me how thin
layer chromatography was done, in case I needed to use this technique in my
research. He also mended my broken iron, which blew up one day at home.
This was not exceptionally difficult; I think one of the wires had become
loose, but I had not time to examine it myself. I was working twice as hard
as most of the other research students because of my need to pack two years
work into one.
Chris was a Catholic. He told me he lived near Rubery Hill Hospital and
attended the church near there. I had met the priest in charge of this
church when he had briefly visited the hospital during the two weeks I
stayed there. Chris said that his sermons were very dull. I was finding
the sermons at the Jesuit Church interesting. The congregation was invited
to provide the bidding prayers each week, by putting their petitions in a
box at the back of the church. As many as possible of these were read out.
Chris never stayed late at work in the lab and appeared to be rather
unenthusiastic about his research. He was very efficient and tried to
devise the shortest method for completing each task; he went home promptly
at 5.30 pm each day. Some of the other students occasionally stayed late,
especially the older man of 44 who told me he had worked on mustard gas
during the war. He was glad that it had all been destroyed out at sea and
was never used in the second world war. I thought his ion exchange
research interesting as in my earlier days I had worked with these
materials at water treatment companies. One day when I felt unwell he took
me home to my lodgings in his car. I received many kindnesses and help
from the students during my year at Birmingham.
David was another quiet research student, single and living in
lodgings. In total we numbered four women and six men. It was a happy
atmosphere in this research lab. I had never enjoyed work so much.
None of us talked much about our research to the other students. It did
not appear to be the custom. The exception was the monthly lecture given by
each Ph.D. student in turn, when they would summarise what they were doing.
However as I was doing only an M.Sc., I was not asked to do this. Colin
was the unofficial leading research student. Unfortunately he was one of
the only ones who never succeeded in publishing a research paper. From my
M.Sc. work I eventually published two papers in a chemical journal, called
"Analytica Chimica Acta".
Besides the monthly lectures, we had an evening monthly social
gathering in an office near the laboratories. Professor Belcher attended
these functions, and our overseas students were encouraged to provide the
food, representative of their countries. The ex-secretary, who was doing
an M.Sc. like me, was Dutch. She provided a meal based on Dutch cheeses.
I am not sure what Klara provided but Czechoslovakian food was what she
had in mind.
We had an African student with us doing a Ph.D. but he was rarely
working in the lab during the day time. When I arrived early for work,
sometimes at 7 am, I would find him there and he told me that he worked all
night. He said that he preferred to work at night. The lab was always open.
There was a small back door left unlocked. I do not think the paid staff
and security men knew about this door. It led up spiral stairs on to a
balcony, from which the lab could be entered. I always used this door, and
very rarely entered by the front entrance, which was unlocked at about 8.30
am when the stores staff started work. These people left off at 5.30 pm.
My bench was directly adjoining the balcony. This balcony was sometimes
used for paper chromatography. These were often developed by means of a
spray. People did not want to contaminate the air in the lab with
solvents, so used the balcony as an alternative to a fume cupboard, which
were always full of apparatus used for making organic preparations.
My initial titrations using a micro-burette were so encouraging that
Professor Belcher became keenly interested in my work. Unfortunately when
the Sulphonazo failed to keep, even at low temperatures in the refrigerated
room, the work had to be abandoned.
Working at Birmingham University was always a pleasure. I had a bench
to myself and cupboards beneath it. It was similarly equipped to my old
bench in the food lab at the Government Chemist. Much walking about during
the day, carrying samples to different rooms was necessary. Complex
instrumental work was done in separate rooms which were kept cleaner and
drier than was possible in the main lab, where much glassware was used.
Often I had to walk about the campus. Sometimes I went to the students
union building for a bath. It was a long walk, by the lake to the opposite
end of the campus; this walk did me good after a long day in a confined
space. The edges of the lake were obscured by bushes, reeds and varied
plants, so it was not possible to walk very near the water's edge. Views
through the foliage were attractive. Often I walked round this lake during
cold weather when there were very few people about. During my time at
Birmingham, I met very few undergraduate students, and knew nothing about
their lives.
Occasionally I had to visit another building. One day, near the end of
November I had to visit the organic chemistry department, as capacious
fume-cupboards were available and the chlorine cylinders needed for the
preparation of a complex compound called 4-amino-4'-chlorobiphenyl were
stored there. I had to prepare a sample of this compound for my own use in
determining traces of sulphate.
The first stage of this process involved passing chlorine into 4-
nitrodiphenyl. Chlorine is a very dangerous gas. I was provided with a
respirator by Dr. W.I. Stephen, which I was told to put on if any chlorine
gas escaped from the fume cupboard. This was a fearsome piece of
apparatus. I had never in my life worn a respirator and I wanted to avoid
putting it on at all costs. It was only a safety precaution for use if the
extractor in the fume cupboard broke down. As all the fume cupboards at
Birmingham University were maintained to a high standard, I did not expect
the respirator to be necessary. I was working in a corridor, adjoining a
large lab. The corridor contained only a fume cupboard. The procedure
required standing near the chlorine cylinder and passing chlorine through
the liquid contained in a large flask for about two hours. Personal
attention was necessary because the chlorine had to be passed through at a
slow speed in order to give time for the necessary reaction to take place.
All went well during the first hour. The flask containing the liquid was
supported on a balance. When the flask had increased in weight by a fixed
amount the reaction was expected to be complete.
I began to get worried because the procedure appeared to be taking a
long time. Several of my colleagues were working in the adjoining lab.
Unfortunately they could not see me. At lunch time they all left the room
and turned off the main switch which controlled the fume cupboards. They
did not notice that I was still at work in the corridor.
I did not notice that the fume cupboard had been turned off. I was
making a mistake in the preparation by passing the chlorine too slowly.
This may have been fortunate as it saved me from being poisoned by the
chlorine. What was escaping from the flask was not chlorine but a volatile
chlorine compound. I did not notice it at first but gradually became aware
of a sweet smell. I panicked. I did not know how to put the respirator on.
I thought I should get out of the atmosphere as soon as possible, so simply
turned off the chlorine cylinder and walked back to the laboratory.
I told Professor Belcher what had happened, as he happened to be in the
analytical laboratory when I got back. So far I had had no successful
results from my research and he was not feeling very pleased with me. He
was angry that I had not brought the reaction flask back with me, but had
simply turned off the chlorine and left my preparation half-finished. Dr.
Stephen was more sympathetic.
Earlier in the day he had seen me working in the corridor which was
rather cold and had offered to complete the preparation himself. I
regretted now that I had not taken advantage of this offer. At this moment
I was feeling rather miserable and tired as I has had nothing to eat. I
usually worked for longer hours than the male colleagues who had three
years to complete their degree and was beginning to feel very tired.
However Dr. Stephen rescued the situation by purifying the compound I
had partially made. He was an expect at preparing 4-amino-4'-
chlorobiphenyl. Only about one third of the estimated amount was made, but
this was enough for me to use in my analytical research.
I worked hard and before Christmas successfully completed an adequate
method for determination of microgram amounts of sulphate. In the end Dr.
Stephen was quite pleased as the method was suitable for publication.
Nephelometry means light-scattering. The success of the method
depended on producing very small evenly-sized particles of precipitated
sulphate, suspended in aqueous solution. A simple optical instrument which
measured the extent of light-scattering, depending on the concentration of
sulphate was used for the determination. After I had completed the initial
method, further checking for the effect of interfering substances was
necessary.This was not completed until about the end of January 1966.
Before this I had a Christmas break, as the University closed
completely for one week. I spent this with Dad at Gordona. By this time
Eve, his housekeeper whom he was hoping to marry was living there. Marriage
depended on getting an annulment of his marriage to his second wife, Mary.
Unfortunately, she had returned to the USA in 1951 and could not be traced.
This prevented the annulment from being granted by the Catholic Church.
Dad continued living with Eve as his housekeeper until the time when Eve
had a stroke and had to be looked after in a cottage hospital. Cottage
hospitals acted as a nursing homes in the 1960's and early 1970's. Eve's
sister, Mavis was living in Bradfield, a village nearby. She visited and
prepared a meal starting with real Yorkshire pudding. Eve and Mavis came
from Yorkshire. Both had married and were now widows, but neither had had
any children. Mavis was feeling rather lonely at this time, and was glad
to spend Christmas at Gordona. With the four of us, the old house was quite
full.
I felt that the amount of experience that 1965 had held for me was
enough to fill ten ordinary years.
"You won't have to stay for more than a week at Rubery Hill," he said.
"You are not suitable for residence at this hostel. You should be living
with academic people, not with working girls".
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