Acc. No.
Published
CA CCA
Fonds consist of 27 series: Official Documents, Mementoes, School Reports, Academic Qualifications, Theses, Notebooks, Awards, List of Published Articles, Artwork, Immigration to Canada Documents, Family Histories, Insurance, Correspondence, Colin Mawson AECL Papers, Published Articles, Conference Papers, Reports, Reactor Safety Advisory Committee, Deep River, Colin Mawson Post-AECL, Elinor Mawson Journalist/Fiction Writer, Interests, Elinor Mawson's Books, Colin Mawson's Books, Home Guard Papers, Archibald Gowanlock and Mary Huntsman, Archibald Gowanlock Hunstman Estate Papers
Fair to Good
The materials were donated by Beatrice Mawson, the daughter of Colin and Elinor Mawson
Charlotte County Archives 2E-2F
Acc. No.
Colin Mawson was born in Sheffield, England, 22 October 1908, the son of James and Florence Mawson, he had a younger sister Joan Brenda Mawson. He was educated at Kings School, Peterborough, Central Secondary School, Sheffield, and the Central High School, Manchester. He won the Burley scholarship and attended Manchester University, he earned his BSc. Hons. in Chemistry, 1929, his MSc. in Organic Chemistry, 1930, and his PhD. in Physiology,1933. He worked at the Royal Cancer Hospital Research Institute, London, through as a Sir Halley Stewart Fellow,1933-34. He was engaged in cancer research, essentially a continuation of his PhD. research in chemical physiology i.e. muscle and tumour metabolism. During the next three years he held a research fellowship at the Westminster Hospital Medical School where he also worked on the Rous Fowl Sarcoma virus and tumour immunity. He then took up the position of Clinical Biochemist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. He was in charge of the Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory. Colin, in addition to the direction of routine work and development of methods, he carried out research on control of diabetes and thyroid disorders, liver function tests, blood clotting, ascorbic acid metabolism and control of dosage of sulphonamides as well as collaborating in various clinical and pathological research projects. He also took part in nutritional investigations for the Ministry of food. Colin also served as an officer in the Home Guard, 1940-44. until the Mawson family emigrated to Canada in 1949. He was then employed by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, at Chalk River, as a senior research officer 1949-56. Colin worked out a method for estimating fission products in urine and engaged in research on the significance of zinc in the male genital system. The latter subject occupied him until 1956, when following the death of Dr. A.J. Cipriani, he acted as interim Director of the Biology Division until the appointment of Dr. G.C. Butler. He was then appointed Branch Head of the newly formed Environmental Research Branch and held that position until he retired. From 1954 until 1956 he was in charge of Waste Management at Chalk River. He was relieved of that responsibility in 1965 when AECL agreed with him that there was a conflict of interest with his responsibilities as director of research in environmental safety. He published approx. 80 papers in the scientific literature, and two books, ‘Management of Radioactive Wastes’, 1965, Van Nostrand, and ‘The story of Radioactivity’ 1969, Prentice Hall.
He served on the Atomic Energy Control Board’s (AECB) Reactor Safety Advisory Committee for over twenty years. He served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Radioactive Waste Management committee, and on various study panels. He also had a role in the Porter Commission on electric power planning. He acted as a consultant for both the AECB and AECL and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.
In 1994, Colin and Elinor moved to a nursing home in Thornhill, Ontario to be closer to their daughter Beatrice. However, Beatrice died in March 1977 and Elinor died in 2006. Colin Mawson today lives in a nursing home in Toronto, and his nephew Colin Kenning Marchant looks after his well being.
Published
Series consists of the academic certificates of Elinor, her daughter Beatrice, and Colin’s younger sister Brenda.
good
Charlotte County Achives 2E1
Published
Series consists of papers relating to the life and work of A.G. Huntsman, father of Elinor Mawson.
17.5 cm of textual records
Archibald Gowanlock Huntsman was Elinor Mawson’s father. He was born at Tintern, Ontario 23 November 1883. He was a Canadian academic, oceanographer, and fisheries biologist. He is best known for his research on Atlantic salmon and inventing the fast freezing of fish fillets in 1929. He joined the Dept. of Zoology as a lecturer in 1907. In 1917 he was appointed an associate lecturer and was appointed as a professor of marine zoology in 1927. In 1911, he was appointed director of the St Andrews Biological Station in New Brunswick, and became permanent director in 1915. He was the recipient of many honors by scientific societies in Canada, the US and the UK, and in 1952 he was awarded the RSC Flavelle Medal. The Huntsman Marine Laboratory (now the Huntsman Marine Science Centre) was named is his memory and the A.G. Huntsman award was established in 1980 to recognize excellence and outstanding contributions to marine sciences.
He died in St Andrews in 1973, and the executors of his estate were two of his sons-in-law, Colin Mawson, married to his daughter Elinor and Cosmo Marchant, married to his daughter Edith.