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Robert Geoffrey (Bob) Edwards: the early years
4 Robert Geoffrey (Bob) Edwards: the early years John Slee Fellow student at Bangor and Edinburgh Universities I have always regarded Bob Edwards as my best friend, although for many years I have seen little of him as events took us to different parts of the world. However, early memories are often the most indelible. I first met Bob in 1948 at the University of North Wales, Bangor. I was only 18, fresh from a boarding school; Bob was four years older and an ex-serviceman. Our different backgrounds proved no barrier to a friendship which seemed to start in an Agricultural Chemistry class and was to last over 60 years. I continued to study Agriculture but Bob decided, correctly, that a switch to Zoology was a better option for him. This proved to be a momentous decision. Apart from academic work we shared several interests. We both played tennis and badminton and frequented the university ‘gramophone society’ where our tastes proved similar. Many evenings we walked home singing excerpts from Beethoven or Sibelius symphonies! Two other activities important to Bob were hill walking often in the Snowdonia range, when he would keep me informed of his personal record times for different ascents and also rugby, where he played for the University of Wales as a backrow forward. This career was interrupted by a broken ankle and a stay in hospital. Bob had a wonderful sense of humour and he took an impish delight in converting me from a ‘true blue Tory’ to a left-wing socialist in less than a week! Most of our humour was fairly innocent and there was little social drinking apart from riotous end of year celebrations. After final exams in the summer of 1951 we parted with no clear ideas for the future and apparently little likelihood of ever meeting again. However, our thoughts had
Bob Edwards Nobel Laureate turned quite independently towards an interest in genetics. We arrived more or less simultaneously at the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh University, each equally surprised to see the other. Here we spent the next four years, first on the Genetics diploma course and then on research for PhD degrees. Bob seemed to anticipate his future by choosing a project involving reproduction in mice, rather than simply accepting whatever was offered. Bob was highly ambitious and a dedicated worker even then, but he was above all a well-rounded person with the intellect and determination to succeed, but also with a continuing ability to enjoy life, including sports such as squash, badminton and tennis which we often played together. Somehow he also found time to teach me how to be comfortable on long distance bus journeys, how to alight safely from fast moving Edinburgh tramcars and to correctly predict my reactions to motor cycle speedway ‘you’ll love it the first time and be bored stiff by the third’. After completion of our PhDs in 1954 55 our paths diverged and we met only rarely. But some of these occasions were memorable. Bob was my best man when I was married in 1956 on a bright, crisp February day in Scotland; I returned the compliment for Bob’s wedding on a glorious summer day in the Cotswolds later that year. I also remember the day of Bob’s return to the Genetics Institute in Edinburgh, some 10 years after his graduation, to deliver an invited lecture on his success as the first to achieve human in-vitro fertilization. The atmosphere amongst the senior staff was a remarkable mixture of admiration tinged with disbelief had one of our students really managed that? Bob and I still meet only occasionally, but I have never forgotten or ceased to value the memories of those early years as students and it has been a privilege to have known him for so long and to call him a friend.
Bob Edwards Nobel Laureate turned quite independently towards an interest in genetics. We arrived more or less simultaneously at the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh University, each equally surprised to see the other. Here we spent the next four years, first on the Genetics diploma course and then on research for PhD degrees. Bob seemed to anticipate his future by choosing a project involving reproduction in mice, rather than simply accepting whatever was offered. Bob was highly ambitious and a dedicated worker even then, but he was above all a well-rounded person with the intellect and determination to succeed, but also with a continuing ability to enjoy life, including sports such as squash, badminton and tennis which we often played together. Somehow he also found time to teach me how to be comfortable on long distance bus journeys, how to alight safely from fast moving Edinburgh tramcars and to correctly predict my reactions to motor cycle speedway ‘you’ll love it the first time and be bored stiff by the third’. After completion of our PhDs in 1954 55 our paths diverged and we met only rarely. But some of these occasions were memorable. Bob was my best man when I was married in 1956 on a bright, crisp February day in Scotland; I returned the compliment for Bob’s wedding on a glorious summer day in the Cotswolds later that year. I also remember the day of Bob’s return to the Genetics Institute in Edinburgh, some 10 years after his graduation, to deliver an invited lecture on his success as the first to achieve human in-vitro fertilization. The atmosphere amongst the senior staff was a remarkable mixture of admiration tinged with disbelief had one of our students really managed that? Bob and I still meet only occasionally, but I have never forgotten or ceased to value the memories of those early years as students and it has been a privilege to have known him for so long and to call him a friend.