Graydon, John Johnstone

Summary

Jack Graydon worked for the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories 1925-1973, retiring as a Principal Research Scientist. His early career included work on the production of insulin. He was a key part of the project team produce commercial quantities of penicillin during World War II. Other projects included work on the Rh factor, the manufacture of Salk vaccine 1955-1965 and work on snake venoms over many years.

Details

1944 - Following the decision of the Australian War Cabinet in 1943 that penicillin be produced, Dr EV Keogh recommended that Captain P.L. Bazeley, a CSL officer then serving with the 218th Australian Armored Regiment in New Guinea, be appointed to head the project. With Lieutenant H. Kretchmar, a science graduate with Public Health Laboratory experience, Captain Bazeley visited production plants in the United States of America, and returned to Australia to initiate production.

Then began a remarkable series of improvisations, with men and materials in short supply, which resulted in an efficient, highly specialised plant being installed at CSL. With Mr G. Anderson, Mr H.C. Cochrane, Mr C.L. Biggs and Dr J.J. Graydon heading the various processing sections, the team, by February 1944, was supplying the needs of the Australian forces and some of the US forces in the Pacific combat area. Shortly afterwards, Australia became the first country in the world to make regular supplies available to the civilian population.

The project was a triumph for CSL. There developed a comradeship and enthusiasm among the staff that is hard to describe. They earned the gratitude of the nation. CSL had again demonstrated the need for a local pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, and its own ability to successfully meet the challenges of new technology. [Source: CSL 70, pdf page 7]

Chronology

c. 1905 - c. 1920

Life event - Grew up as the younder son of Mr and Mrs N.I.L. Graydon, Slioobra Road, Elsternwick, Victoria

8 September 1936

Life event - Married Marjorie Lilian McTaggert, Presbyterian Church, Elsternwick Victoria

1947

Education - DSc, University of Melbourne, for a thesis on 'The human blood groups'.

1957

Career position - Joined the WHO Expert Panel on Biological Standardization

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Brogan, Alfred H., Committed to Saving Lives: a history of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (South Yarra, Victoria: Hyland House, 1990), 301 pp. Pages 34, 44, 82, 95, 127, 152, 165, 215, 221, 228. Details

Journal Articles

• Winkel, Kenneth D.; Mirtschin, Peter and Pearn, John, 'Twentieth Century Toxinology and Antivenom development in Australia', Toxicon, 48 (7) (2006), 738-754 . Details

Resources

• 'Graydon, John Johnstone', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1476705. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_g.html. Details
• Ingpen, Robert, Australian inventions and innovations (Rigby Publishers Limited, 1982), 80 pp. Details
• Legge, J. W.; and Gibson, F., 'Victor Martin Trikojus, 1902-1985', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (4) (1987), 519-531. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870640519. Details