DENE MAGNA SCHOOL - Key Persons

Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire on 17th May 1749. He was the eighth of nine children born to the vicar of Berkeley, the Reverend Stephen Jenner, and his wife Sarah. Edward Jenner spent much of the rest of his life supplying cowpox material to others around the world and discussing related scientific matters. He was so involved in corresponding about smallpox that he called himself 'the Vaccine Clerk to the World'. He quickly developed techniques for taking the matter from human cowpox pocks and drying it onto threads or glass so that it could be widely transported. In recognition of his work and as a recompense for the time it took him away from his general practice the British Government awarded him £10,000 in 1802, and a further £20,000 in 1807. Jenner is honoured The technique of introducing material under the skin to produce protection against disease became universally known as vaccination, a word derived from the Latin name for the cow (Vacca), in Jenner's honour. He received the freedom of many cities, including London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin. Societies and universities around the world gave him honorary degrees and memberships. Perhaps the most significant tributes were the minting of a special medal by Napoleon in 1804, the gift of a ring by the Empress of Russia and a string and belt of Wampum beads and a certificate of gratitude from the North American Indian Chiefs. Statues to his honour were erected as far afield as Tokyo and London. The latter is now in Kensington Gardens but was originally sited in Trafalgar Square.

Edward Wilson

Job Titles:

Physician and Polar Explorer from Gloucestershire.

Wilson was a key member of the British Antarctic 1910 - 1912 Expedition. The group hit bad weather and one by one they sacrificed their own lives to save their fellow team members; a hugely commendable act. Edward Wilson was born in Cheltenham on 23 July 1872, the son of a local physician. He was educated at Cheltenham College, and at Cambridge University, where he graduated in Natural Science and Medicine in 1894. He continued his medical studies in London and qualified as a doctor in 1901. Wilson's medical and scientific skills were matched by his artistic talent. It was this combination that led to his appointment, in 1901, as a second medical officer, vertebrate zoologist and artist on Captain Scott's National Antarctic Expedition, which set sail in the Discovery in August 1901. During the expedition, Wilson undertook important scientific work and began to create a superb series of Antarctic drawings and watercolours that are his main artistic achievement. Following his return to England in 1904, Wilson undertook various scientific projects and prepared illustrations for books on British mammals and birds. In 1909, he accepted Captain Scott's invitation to act as Chief of Scientific Staff on a second Antarctic Expedition, which set sail in the Terra Nova in June 1910. A principal aim of the expedition was to reach the South Pole, which no one had ever done before. Wilson was one of five men chosen to make the journey. They set out from the Antarctic coast in November 1911, and arrived at the Pole on 17 January 1912, only to discover that the Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, had reached it a month before. Their journey back was dogged by terrible weather, food and fuel shortages, and sickness. By mid-March, two of the party had died, and the remaining three, including Wilson, were marooned in their tent by a nine-day blizzard. There they died, during the last days of March 1912, their bodies were discovered eight months later, on 12 November 1912.