Sir Joseph Barcroft

Sir Joseph Barcroft CBE, FRS was Chief Physiologist at the Gas Warfare Centre during both World Wars.

While still a schoolboy he was awarded a BSc in 1891. After opting to study physiology, he entered King’s College Cambridge as an exhibitioner in 1894, he obtained first class honours in natural sciences (BA, 1896), was made a fellow of Kings (1899), won the Walshingham Medal for biological research (1899), and in 1900 shared the Gedge Prize for physiological research with H. H. Dale.

Entering King’s College Cambridge as an exhibitioner in 1894, he obtained first class honours in natural sciences (BA, 1896), was made a fellow of Kings (1899), won the Walshingham Medal for biological research (1899), and in 1900 shared the Gedge Prize for physiological research with H H Dale. Entering King’s College Cambridge as an exhibitioner in 1894, he obtained first class honours in natural sciences (BA, 1896), was made a fellow of Kings (1899), won the Walshingham Medal for biological research (1899), and in 1900 shared the Gedge Prize for physiological research with H H Dale. Entering King’s College Cambridge as an exhibitioner in 1894, he obtained first class honours in natural sciences (BA, 1896), was made a fellow of Kings (1899), won the Walshingham Medal for biological research (1899), and in 1900 shared the Gedge Prize for physiological research with H H Dale. By the outbreak of the Great War he had already achieved international recognition for his work on the respiratory function of blood

By the outbreak of the Great War he had already achieved international recognition for his work on the respiratory function of blood. Aspects in his preferred field which he studied included the effects of temperature, carbon dioxide pressure, acidity, salts, dialysis, diet and exercise and high altitude; for the latter, he participated in high-altitude expeditions, in Tenerife in 1910 and at Monte Rosa, Italy in 1911.

He also invented the Bar-Croft deferential blood gas manometer.

In both the First World War and Second World War he was appointed Chief Physiologist at the Gas Warfare Centre. In the course of his research he was never hesitant to use himself as the test subject, and in 1918 he was appointed a CBE for his services.

In 1919 he returned to Cambridge as reader in physiology, working on the circulation, the distribution of blood, its storage and release by organs such as the spleen, and on the various causes of anoxaemia.

In 1937 he was made chairman of the Food Investigation Board and during the War was chairman of the Nutrition Society.

Numerous honours and responsibilities came his way over the years: In 1910 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, president of the physiological section of the British Association in 1920, the Royal Society Medal in 1922, the Fullerton Professor-ship of the Royal Institution in the same year, the chair of physiology at Cambridge in 1925, as well as honorary doctorates from six universities in Europe and North America.

He would also deliver the Croonian Lecture in 1935. He was also knighted in 1935 and elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1938. In 1943, he was awarded the Royal Society Copley Medal.

In 1937 he was made chairman of the Food Investigation Board and during the War was chairman of the Nutrition Society.

Upon his return to Cambridge in 1941, he was appointed head of the newly formed animal physiology unit of the Agricultural Research Council,

In 1944 the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists made him an honorary fellow. Awarded the Copley Medal of The Royal Society in 1943, he was also made Honorary fellow of the Royal Society Edinburgh in 1944.

In 1944 the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal Society of Edinburgh made him an honorary fellow.