Arthur Dukinfield Darbishire

Arthur Dukinfield Darbishire in 1911

plate from Breeding and the Mendelian Discovery, by A D Darbishire)

Darbishire's name is listed on panel 3 of the Brookwood Memorial

Arthur Dukinfield Darbishire FRSE (14 February 1879-26 December 1915) was a short-lived but vital British zoologist and geneticist who helped pave the way for Dolly the Sheep. He was the first person to lecture in Genetics in Britain. He caused a stir in the world of genetics in the early 20th century in the debate over theory, sometimes referred to as The Mendel Wars.^[1]

From 1901 onwards he conducted a series of experiments (working under Raphael Weldon) on the hybridisation of mice in the laboratory.^[2]

He was author of the highly influential book Breeding and the Mendelian Discovery.

Life

He was born in Kensington in London on 14 February 1879, the son of Dr Samuel Dukinfield Darbishire (1846-1892) and his wife Florence Eckersley (1848-1917). Soon after he was born, the family moved to Oxford, when his father was appointed Physician at the Radcliffe Infirmary. In 1881 the family are listed as living at 15 New Inn Hall Street with four servants. In 1888 his father took early retiral on health grounds and the family moved to Plas Mawr in Wales. However, the family returned to Oxford following his father’s premature death in 1892. Having suffered from rheumatic fever as a child he was considered unsuitable for boarding school and was taught locally at Magdalen College School before receiving a place at Oxford University.^[3]

He graduated MA in Natural Sciences and Zoology from Balliol College at Oxford University in 1902. He stayed on to act as Demonstrator in Zoology at the college. In 1911 he became Lecturer in Genetics at Edinburgh University and in July 1912 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Cossar Ewart, James Hartley Ashworth, Sir James Anderson Scott Watson and Ramsay Heatley Traquair.^[4] Whilst in Edinburgh he was greatly influenced by Henri Louis Bergson who was visiting to give the Gifford Lectures in the spring of 1914.

His promising career was cut short by the First World War. In 1914 he was lecturing in Genetics at the School of Agriculture in Columbia, Missouri. He was unable to accept either of the two proffered Professorships in the USA and instead returned to Britain at the outbreak of war. At first being declared unfit for active service due to physical delicacy he persevered (also not enjoying is alternative posting to munitions production) and was accepted as a Private into the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in July 1915. Sadly the diagnosis of physical delicacy proved correct. He became seriously ill during training at Gailes Training Camp near London.^[5]

He was taken ill with cerebral meningitis on Christmas Day 1915 and died on the following morning.

He was gazetteered as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery three days after his death.

He is buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, Britain's largest cemetery. However he is listed on the memorial listing those with no known grave. He is listed as a Second Lieutenant RGA on panel 3 of the memorial, despite never living to hold this position.^[6] His name also appears on the Roll of Honour in Sunningwell Village Hall. He is also named on the war memorials for Balliol College, Edinburgh University and Manchester University.

The post of Director of the new Animal Breeding Research Station (later the Institute of Animal Genetics) in Edinburgh was created with Darbishire in mind, but instead fell to his former pupil, Francis Albert Eley Crew in 1921.

Family

Darbishire's name on the Edinburgh University War Memorial

Although Darbishire never married he allegedly had a child by Mrs Winifred Carritt, wife of Prof Edgar Carritt of University College, London. Anthony Carritt (1914-1937) was raised as the professor’s son. Shortly after being told of his true father, Anthony joined the volunteers in the Spanish Civil War with his brother, Noel Carritt. Anthony was killed at the Battle of Brunete, bringing an end to Arthur’s personal lineage.^[7]

His sister Helen Darbishire (1881-1961) was Principal of Somerville College in Oxford.

His cousin, Bernhard Vernon Darbishire (d.1935), was a minor war poet.

His uncle, Robert Dukinfield Darbishire, was a prominent Manchester lawyer who founded the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.^[8]

Publications

• On the Bearing of Mendelian Principles of Heredity on Current Theories of the Origin of Species (1904)
• On the supposed Antagonism of Mendelian to Biometric Theories of Heredity (1905)
• The Mutation Theory: Experiments and Observations of the Origin of Species in the Vegetable Kingdom (1909) co-written with John Bretland Farmer
• Breeding and the Mendelian Discovery (1911)
• An Introduction to Biology (1917) posthumous publishing edited by his sister Helen

References