College Record 2019

in an attempt to answer a number of key
questions about the nature of the circulation
and the structure and distribution of the
coinage in England.
Nick Mayhew
© The Guardian News and Media Ltd 2019.
Courtesy of Guardian News and Media Ltd.
excelled academically at Lichfield grammar
school and in 1949, aged 17, he went to
Bristol University to study physics. There
he met a fellow-student, Judith Marshall,
whom he married in 1957. After graduating,
Peter undertook a PhD, supervised by the
Nobel physics laureate Cecil Powell, before
(in 1955) becoming a scientific officer at
Harwell and working his way up within the
organisation.
Peter Iredale
(1930-2019)
My father Peter Iredale, who has died aged
87, was the last director of the UK Atomic
Energy Authority’s Harwell laboratory in
Oxfordshire, a pioneering institute that
housed Europe’s first nuclear reactor.
Having joined Harwell in the late 1950s as
a scientific officer, Peter progressed through
various scientific and leadership positions
there, with a focus that eventually expanded
to embrace non-nuclear energy technologies
such as wind and wave power. At one stage
he led the marine and technology support
unit at Harwell, and from 1979 to 1984
he chaired the UK wave energy steering
committee.
He was appointed deputy director at Harwell
in 1986 and then director the following year.
However, in 1990, following a ministerial
decision – the implications of which were
not known at the time of his appointment
– drastic cuts in government funding led
to a radical restructuring. It fell to Peter to
preside over the ending of Harwell’s role
as a homogenous research establishment.
Before stepping down in 1992 he produced
a plan to develop the campus as a centre for
scientific innovation, and this came to fruition
in the form of what is now the Harwell
science and innovation campus.
After leaving Harwell, Peter sought another
strategic role to satiate his intellectual
restlessness, and found fulfilment as chair of
Oxfordshire area health authority, a position
he held from 1992 until 2001. In that role he
managed several large NHS reorganisations,
including the merger of all the main
Oxfordshire hospitals into one trust; a
process fraught with difficulty. Navigating
these complexities while maintaining stability
in the local health system required great
fixity of purpose, clarity of strategic vision
and an outstanding ability to persuade
people to work together.
In parallel, Peter recognised the importance
of building a stronger relationship between
the Oxfordshire health sector and the
University of Oxford, and his work in that
direction led to the creation of several world
class clinical research institutes, including the
Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology
and Metabolism and the Centre of Functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain.
In his spare time he enjoyed gardening and
operatic music. He is survived by Judith, their
four children (John, Susan, Helen and Alison),
and 13 grandchildren.
John Iredale
© The Guardian News and Media Ltd 2019.
Courtesy of Guardian News and Media Ltd.
THE RECORD
Born in Brownhills, near Walsall, to Annie
(née Kirby), a maid, and Henry, a grocer, Peter
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