Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

Holme, Ken Ashby, Alan Cock, Elspeth McConnachie, Ursula Grigg, Fergus
O'Rourke, Geoffrey Matthews. Three of us later became FRS's, and eight, at least,
became Professors or Directors of Research of similar seniority. Ray Beverton, FRS ,
was the outstanding student of that year and many years later was my “boss” as
Secretary of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
In Part II I specialised in experimental physiology, ecology and vertebrate
biology. Hans Lissman (later FRS) was one of our teachers and he persuaded me to
give my first seminar to the class, on the subject of serial growth layers in bones and
scales. (This may have been influential in my later discovery of annual growth
layers in the teeth of seals and other mammals, which came to have a significant
influence on our understanding of population ecology of mammals, chapter 9).
Winter privations
The winters at that time were very cold. The Cam froze over and it was possible
to walk along it, even skate as far as Ely one year. There is a field just at the
beginning of Grantchester Meadows, to the west of Cambridge which used to be
flooded and formed a makeshift skating rink, although it did have a cast-iron lamp
standard in the centre of the ice, around which we skated. Skating was such a
feature of these years that I bought a pair of ice skates. (Now, in the 2000's, the
skeleton of the lamp standard is still there but defunct - and winters have not been
really cold for many years).
Our living conditions were more rigorous too, particularly with fuel rationing.
The winter of my last year as an undergraduate - the winter of l947 - was the worst
on record: the longest period without sun, the lowest average temperature, the
fiercest snowstorms and the deepest drifts for many years. From mid-January to
mid-March the whole of Europe was gripped by freezing temperatures. Services
were badly affected and food supplies got shorter. The privations began towards the
end of l946 when it rained and rained; one day in November 7 inches fell. There was
a white Christmas and further snow flurries in early January. The temperature
remained below freezing for nearly eight weeks. There were gale force winds and
snowdrifts up to 10 ft deep over most of South-East England at the end of January.
More than 4 million sheep and lambs and 30,000 cattle died. Supplies of food and
fuel diminished; we were still on rationing: about 1 lb of meat, 11/2 oz cheese, 2 pints
of milk and an egg, each week; bread was rationed. The mines were nationalized
then and at the end of l946 stocks were at such a low level that coal deliveries were
cut. There wasn't enough even for a normal winter and by the end of January
reserves were down to 10 days, so deliveries were further cut. Early in February
electricity supplies were cut for 5 hours a day. Radio programmes went off the air.
According to a contemporary account: “In mid March l947, the county
[Cambridgeshire] was still in chaos, due to a heavy fall of snow. Housewives were
being urged to conserve their liquid milk supplies since roads blocked by snow were
preventing milk lorries getting through to farms. Some villages were completely cut
off with waist-high drifts. It was said to be the worst snow since l927, drifts varying
from two to 12 feet deep in the countryside. The London to Royston road was
blocked, and cars had to be dug out of drifts. Bus services were suspended and
villages completely cut off by road. Soon the snow was melting and by 14 March
Cambridge was hit by some of the worst flooding for nearly thirty years. Silver Street
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