| AdminHistory | Douglas Robert Wilkie's scientific career is closely tied to University College London, where he began as a medicine student in 1940 on a shortened wartime course. He was recognised for his academic ability and awarded a Rockefeller Scholarship, taking him to Yale University, where he completed the final year of his medical studies and obtained his MD. A photograph album documenting his time in Yale can be found under DRW/4/1. In 1944 he returned to University College as a house physician, obtaining an MRCP in the same year. He was then appointed to an assistant lectureship in 1945 at the Physiology Department of UCL, and other than a brief period of military service at the Institute of Aviation Medicine in Farnborough between 1948-1950, he remained at UCL until retirement.
The experiments and research papers (DRW/1/1) cover the vast majority of his scientific career and include details of his approach to investigating the mechanics and thermodynamics of muscle contraction, the chemical energetics of muscle contraction, and examination of frog muscles. The series is in manuscript form, containing many preliminary notes and musings, and is arranged by subject, retaining Wilkie's organisation and naming conventions whilst in use. A small collection of his teaching material (DRW/1/2), covering the period between 1953 and 1976, forms part of the collection, encompassing notes for the delivery of lectures on applied physiology, metabolism, muscle contraction, body temperature, and exercise, as well as lists of students, and material for delivery of lectures on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.
Wilkie's correspondence is roughly categorised as either scientific (DRW/2) or personal (DRW/3). The scientific correspondence is further broken down into subject specific, covering topics such as thermodynamics, freezing PT and buffers, and gel filtration, and general scientific which is half sorted chronologically and half by named correspondent, mirroring Wilkie's system of arrangement. Wilkie corresponded and collaborated with other Fellows of the Royal Society, including Archibald Vivian Hill FRS (with whom he developed a friendship), Andrew Fielding Huxley FRS, Kenneth George Denbigh FRS, and Douglas Hugh Everett FRS. Wilkie had many friends amongst other scientists and peers in the field of physiology, and received letters in both professional and personal capacities from the same contacts, therefore scientific content may at times be discussed in personal letters.
The collection details much of Wilkie's personal and romantic life, including correspondence, photographs, and divorce papers. His relationship with his former wife, June Rosalind Wilkie (nee Hill), is documented in its entirety, from early letters and sailing voyages they embarked upon, to their divorce in 1982, and reunion later in life. Unusually for this sort of collection, Wilkie has retained June Wilkie's personal papers and letters (DRW/6), comprising records of her early education and her work on heat balance in newborn and premature infants, shedding light on her professional pursuits. As Douglas and June moved in similar scientific circles, correspondents such as Brian Jewell, for example, appear in both sets of correspondence.
An interesting collection of objects (DRW/5), comprising both scientiic apparatus and items of sentimental value, such as his RAF forge cap and Forbes Lecture medal and plaque.
His Royal Society biographer Roger C. Woldege, notes Wilkie's love of sailing, also apparent in the contents of this collection. In addition, Wilkie was a man who enjoyed travel very much and kept company of other hodophiles, as evidenced in exchanges of numerous postcards, photographs, and travel tips, including for places to wine and dine. |