OBSCURITY TO FAME

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue 148, 11 September 1925, Page 1 (Supplement)

OBSCURITY TO FAME

CAREER OF DR. W. E. GYE ONCE A RAILWAY PORTER

Born the son of poor working-class people; working as railway porter at a little station in the Midlands; determined to become a doctor, and saved every penny he could; went to the university and lived on 10s a week; years of struggle; now famous.

Put in a nutshell, writes a London Evening News representative, this is the life story of Dr. W. E. Gyc, the London doctor, whose discoveries in relation to the cause of cancer —made in conjunction with Mr J. E. Barnard—have attracted world-wide notice. Outside a small circle of medical and scientific experts, the two men were practically unknown until a few weeks ago. Few people in London, for instance, knew until they read the story that Mr Barnard, the head of a well-known firm of hatters of Jermyn Street, is regarded as one of the world’s great authorities on the microscope. “Dr. Gyc’s life,” one of the doctor’s friends states, “is a story of how a niian by unremitting endeavour, rose superior to all difficulties. In his daily days he had a tremendous struggle, and his success has been the result of his own unaided efforts. He received assistance from no one.”

Dr. Gyc was born in the Midlands. He was about 17 years of in go when he began to study in his spare time. Eventually, when he had saved enough out of his small earnings, he went to London, where he took his B.Se. degree. Like mteiny other Scottish students, he taught and coached other students in his spare time, and by this means earned the money to pay his fees and keep himself. He was- a brilliant student, and prizes and scholarships helped him considerably.

Still it was a desperate fight, and men with less grit would probably have gone down. Dr. Gye qualified as a docto in 1912, and in the following year took his M.D. degree. The wtar interfered with his career and he served with a mobile laboratory in France and Italy. After the Armistice he joined the scientific staff and the Medical Research Council, with whom he has been since.

Dr. Gyc is remembered in Edinburgh las a distinctly interesting personality, but his activities were purely scholastic. When he went to Edinburgh lie was rather older than the average student, being about 23. He distinguished himself at once as a student of great promise. “I remember being struck by the air of ability which characterised him,” said the man who remembered him well. He went through his course in the minimum time, and consolidated the good opinions by taking the M.D. one year after graduating M.B. and Ch.B. Most graduates devote two years to the task.