Merrison, Alec, Sir, 1924-

Alexander Walter Merrison was born in Wood Green, London on 20 March 1924. He attended Tottenham Grammar School and then Enfield Grammar School, before going on to King's College London (which had been evacuated to Bristol during the Second World War) where he graduated B.Sc. with First Class Honours in 1944. Merrison's first appointment was as an Experimental Officer working on radar at the Signal Research and Development Establishment, Christchurch, Hampshire 1944-1946. In 1946 Merrison joined the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, as Senior Scientific Officer where he began research in nuclear physics and developed some of the earliest neutron spectrometers. He remained at Harwell to 1951, when he moved to the University of Liverpool as Leverhulme Fellow and Lecturer (Ph.D. 1957). Here he changed the direction of his research and began work on elementary particle physics, a discipline beginning to flourish with the development of proton synchrotron machines. He continued this line of research for the next ten years at Liverpool and CERN, where he was Senior Physicist 1957-1960. Merrison returned to Liverpool in 1960 to take up the Chair in Experimental Physics, holding this post to 1969. In 1962 Merrison was also appointed the first Director of the new Daresbury Nuclear Physics Laboratory, where he was responsible for the construction of the 5 GeV electron synchrotron ' NINA '. The Laboratory was officially opened in 1967.

In 1969 Merrison left Liverpool to become Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol. Although he initially intended to serve for ten years, he held the post to 1984. During his term of office, he presided over many changes in University structure and funding and oversaw a considerable expansion in size, although towards the end of his tenure he was faced with the need to make controversial reductions in some departments as the government reduced its funding of higher education.

Merrison combined his Vice-Chancellorship with a number of other responsibilities. These included service on government committees. In 1970 Merrison was appointed Chairman of the Committee of Inquiry into the design and creation of steel box girder bridges (reporting in 1973). In 1973 he was made Chairman of the Committee of Inquiry into the Regulation of the Medical Profession. This reported in 1975 and its recommendations were very largely incorporated in the 1978 Medical Practitioners Act. In 1978 Merrison was appointed a member of the Severn Barrage Committee established by the Department of Energy under the chairmanship of H. Bondi to assess the advantages and disadvantages of a ' scheme for harnessing the tidal energy of the Severn Estuary ' and advise the Government on whether to proceed. The Committee reported favourably on the project in 1981. In 1976 Merrison was appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission into the National Health Service. It reported in 1979 and although some of its key recommendations were resisted at the time, a number were adopted in later NHS reforms.

Other responsibilities of Merrison included the Chairmanship of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals 1979-1981, a post he took on at a particularly difficult time for the higher education sector, and the Chairmanship of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils 1978-1983, succeeding Sir Frederick Stewart. Internationally, his association with CERN resulted in his being made President of the CERN Council in 1982. He served to 1985 and his presidency saw Spain rejoining the project and he campaigned to retain UK membership of CERN. As an eminent figure in Bristol life, Merrison also took on a number of local responsibilities. He served as a Governor of the Bristol Old Vic theatre and other city involvements included the Bristol Evening Post and Bristol Waterworks Company.

On retirement from the Vice-Chancellorship of Bristol, Merrison's career took another direction when he became a Director of Lloyd's Bank and Chairman of its Western Regional Board. He was also Chairman of the Western Provident Association. Merrison received the Institute of Physics' Charles Vernon Boys Prize for 1961 for his work on the measurement of electron decay. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1969 and knighted in 1976. He received honorary degrees from a number of universities including Bristol, Bath and Liverpool and was appointed High Sheriff of Avon for 1986-1987. Merrison died on 19 February 1989. He was survived by his second wife, Maureen, Lady Merrison, with whom he had a son and a daughter, and two sons from his first marriage. His first wife Beryl died in 1968.

For further information on the life and work of Merrison see E. Gabathuler, 'Sir Alexander [Alec] Walter Merrison, D.L. 20 March 1924-19 February 1989', Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol 48 (2002).

From the guide to the Catalogues of the papers and correspondence of Sir Alec (Alexander Walter) Merrison, physicist, 1924-1989, 1931-2002, (University of Bristol Special Collections, Arts and Social Sciences Library)