New Science Prize and Lecture for LEH

The prize and lecture have been made possible following a kind donation from Mary Sutherland, Class of 1962, who joined LEH after her father was appointed to the prestigious role running the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington.

The STEM prize will be called the Heath Robinson Award for Invention, in memory of Sir Gordon Sutherland, and will be awarded at the annual LEH STEM fair, which this year is being held on March 11th.

Heath Robinson was a celebrated illustrator from the 1930s who drew whimsically elaborate machines to achieve simple objectives. His ingenious contraptions and complex inventions were popular in the “make do and mend” mentality of the Second World War. The admission criteria for the new award stipulate: “The prize will be awarded for an idea from an LEH pupil (of any age) which could be of practical use, but which does not need electricity, gas or any computer-related equipment to function.”

The perennially popular STEM fair showcases research projects and exhibits from across the school to highlight pupils' projects and achievements in all aspects of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

The annual lecture will be given by a prominent guest speaker from the Sciences to bring the world of STEM to life in an informative and entertaining manner.

Mary says: “I hope the award and lecture series will ensure that my father’s memory and his life-long commitment to science are perpetuated, hopefully inspiring scientific inventiveness and creativity in future generations of LEH pupils.

“I feel sure my father would agree how important it is to encourage young people to engage positively with technology - while not losing touch with life without it. In my father’s youth there were of course no computers, mobile phones, internet or AI. This could well be why he was so inventive.”

Head of STEM Andy Brittain says: “A huge thank you to Mary from all of us at LEH. We are very grateful for your generosity in memory of your father, which will help motivate and inspire pupils. Our mission here is to really nurture and encourage the research-based and analytical skills which STEM helps develop, and which pupils can then apply as problem-solving knowledge elsewhere. These critical-thinking abilities help foster creativity and are essential to flourish in a fast-evolving world.”

Mary sets out in her own words why she was inspired to make the donation: “I came to LEH in 1956 (aged 12) when our family returned to England from the USA, where my father had been a Research Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and where I was at University High School. The transition was quite a culture shock for me, and indeed for our whole family.

What brought us back was my father taking up the role of Director of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington, and, as an apartment in Bushy House came with the job, I could cycle to LEH through Bushy Park, so it was the obvious choice of school for me.

It was a pivotal career change for my father, and one which inevitably meant giving up both his teaching and research. Nevertheless, he clearly succeeded as he was knighted while in the role.

He left the NPL in 1964 when offered the Mastership of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the city where he started his research career as a Physicist in the 1930s. He became a Fellow of Pembroke College and head of a research group specialising particularly in infrared spectroscopy. At that time, he met and married my Swedish mother, Gunborg Wahlström, and I am the youngest of their three daughters.

Soon after my father retired as Master of Emmanuel, most unfortunately, he became ill and died, so he was never able to enjoy a fulfilling retirement. Had he lived longer he might well have come up with an idea to initiate and fund a science prize and annual lecture. My father had quite a sense of humour and never sought fame, so I feel sure he would love the idea that the prize be named after an inventor with the greatest and most amusing creative imagination – Heath Robinson.

So, I am delighted that LEH has agreed to my initiating an annual lecture and prize for the “Heath Robinson Award for Invention, in memory of Sir Gordon Sutherland”.  While Heath Robinson’s ideas were all fantasy, two good examples of real ones are the wind-up radio and the “ha-ha” in a landscape. Indeed, Bushy House has one bordering Bushy Park.

Ideally the choice of lecturer will also maintain the theme of invention and humour – the name Nick Park of Aardman Animations springs to mind.

My grateful thanks to Susanna Frayn, Andy Brittain and my partner David Quarmby for helping me to develop this idea. I very much look forward to hearing about the first winning pupil’s submission, and maybe coming to the first prizegiving and lecture, if I may.”

We are very much looking forward to welcoming Mary back to LEH soon.

Useful links:

W Heath Robinson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Heath_Robinson

Wind-up radio https://windupradio.com/trevor

Ha-ha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha

National Physical Laboratory https://www.npl.co.uk/

Sir Gordon Sutherland https://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/about/history/masters/?id=21

If you are logged into your Holles Connect account, you will be able to see a lovely photo of Sir Gordon Sutherland and his wife Gunborg, taken in Cambridge c1935, as well as the portrait of Sir Gordon which hangs in Bushy House.