History

[ Birth | Upbringing | Education | Marriage | Highlights ]



Many people do not know that Howard Florey was an Australian. Many people do not know that he made penicillin. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia on 24 September 1898. He was, perhaps, Australia’s greatest scientist. His finest deed was the development of the "miracle medicine" penicillin.

From the John Curtin School
of Medical Research Archive

Birth

Howard Florey was born at the Florey home in suburban Adelaide on 24 September 1898. He was the only son and third child of Joseph Florey and his second wife, Bertha. Howard had four older sisters. Charlotte and Anne, were the children of his father Joseph and his first wife Charlotte. His sisters, Hilda and Valetta, were born in 1891 and 1892.

Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide

Upbringing

Howard Florey grew up in comfortable surroundings. His father Joseph was a wealthy shoe manufacturer. Joseph Florey and his first wife, Charlotte, left England for South Australia in 1882. Charlotte was ill with consumption. Seeking a more favourable climate, the family sailed for Adelaide, hoping the change would cure Charlotte's consumptive condition.

Sadly, the move to South Australia did not help. Charlotte's health continued to get worse. Joseph employed a widow, Mrs. Lucy Frances Wadham, as a live-in housekeeper and nurse to Charlotte. Mrs Florey eventually died of her illness in April 1886. Three years later Joseph married Mrs Wadham’s daughter, Bertha Mary, in Adelaide.

They first lived at "Argyle Cottage" in Clyde Lane, Parkside. In 1890 the Floreys moved to a larger house in Fisher Street, Malvern. The house remained their home for sixteen years. By 1906 Joseph was a rich person with some hundreds of employees and an income of several thousand pounds a year. In that year the family moved to "Coreega", a sixteen roomed, two-storey freestone building in Mitcham. Howard made friends with the Clampett children who lived in the Rectory next door to Coreega. Mollie Clampett, being eighteen months older than Howard, was closest in age to him and they became lifelong friends.


Later the family lost its fortune. In 1918, during Howard’s second year at university, his father’s business interests collapsed. Joseph was unable to rescue his business, and in September 1918 he died from a heart attack. Howard continued to live at home until he left Australia for Oxford in December 1921.

Education

Howard Florey’s Early Education

Howard began his education at Miss Thornborough’s kindergarten at Unley Park in 1907. He and his childhood friend Mollie Clampett rode in a horse-drawn tram to and from kindergarten each day.

From 1908 to 1910, Howard attended Kyre College preparatory school in Unley Park. His academic and sporting talents shone out from this time. His reports showed him regularly top of his class.


The Prefects
With kind permission, St. Peter's College, Adelaide

Howard went to St. Peter's College, Adelaide (1911-1915). He rode his bicycle from Mitcham to Saint Peters College, Hackney Rd, St Peters. The journey took him from Coreega at the top end of Fullarton Road, along Dequetteville Terrace and Hackney Road to the College. At school he displayed leadership skills as a School Prefect in 1915 and as Head Prefect in 1916. He was a member of the Library Magazine Committee, secretary of the Debating Society and a member of the Sports Committee.


The Athletics Squad
With kind permission, St. Peter's College, Adelaide

After completing high school, Howard studied medicine at Adelaide University. He won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1921 and went to live and work in England. He had academic success at both Oxford and Cambridge universities.

Marriage

Howard Florey married twice. He first married Mary Ethel Hayter Reed. She was a fellow medical student at the University of Adelaide. They married in England at Holy Trinity Church in Paddington, London on 19 October 1925. Despite many arguments, they worked together and remained married for more than forty years.

After the death of Lady Ethel Florey, Lord Florey remarried. His second wife was Dr. Margaret Jennings. She was one of his team of researchers who had been his colleague and special assistant for more than thirty years. They married at the Old Register Office, St Giles, London on 6 June 1967. After only eight months of marriage, Florey died of a heart attack on 21 February 1968, at the age of sixty-nine. Lady Margaret Florey died in 1994.
Gwyn Macfarlane, Howard Florey The Making of a Great Scientist

Florey became a professor at Oxford in 1935. It was there that he developed penicillin. In 1945 he shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine with Ernst Chain and Alexander Fleming.

Because of his deeds Florey received many honours. Various universities awarded him honorary degrees. He also gained membership of many scientific associations. The King knighted him in 1944, and the Queen made him Lord Florey of Adelaide and Marston in 1965.

Highlights of the Life of Howard Walter Florey (Lord Florey of Adelaide and Marston 1898-1968)

1898- Howard Walter Florey was born to Joseph and Bertha Florey. Joseph Florey was a successful shoe manufacturer (24 September).

1906- Florey family moved from Fisher Street in Malvern to Coreega, Upper Mitcham.

1908- Howard Florey attended Kyre School (now Scotch College) at Unley Park.

1911- Commenced at then Collegiate School of St Peter.

1916- Commenced medical school Adelaide University.

1921- Rhodes Scholar for South Australia.

1922-24- Student in the Oxford University graduate program.

1924- Researcher Cambridge University.

1925- 6- Rockefeller grant to study in the USA.

1930-34- Professor of Pathology Sheffield.

1935- Appointed Director of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology Oxford.

1938- Research into the properties of anti bacterial enzyme penicillin commenced at Oxford.

1940- First mouse protection tests done by Florey and the team using eight mice showing that penicillin could protect animals from pathogenic bacteria.
First ever penicillin injected into a human in the USA.

1941- Travelled to the USA with Norman Heatley to interest drug companies in the commercial production of penicillin.
US commercial drug companies agreed to commence commercial production of penicillin.

1942- First penicillin administered in a war zone-Cairo.
British government agreed to produce penicillin in commercial quantities.

1943- First penicillin produced in Australia at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories.

1941- First patent application for penicillin lodged by Dr Andrew Moyer an American.

1945- Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology together with Ernst Chain and Alexander Fleming.

1959- Elected President of the Royal Society (London)

1964- Accepted invitation to become Chancellor of the Australian National University.

1968- Howard Florey died in Oxford (February 21).