Sir Oliver Scott, who has died aged 93, was a radiobiologist and philanthropist whose research underpinned treatment for cancer.
The Scott family settled in Windermere after prospering in the 19th-century Bolton cotton industry. They founded the Provincial Insurance Company in Kendal, which provided the basis for family wealth until sold in 1994. Oliver Scott, who in 1960 became 3rd Baronet of Yews, Westmorland, was a director of the Provincial (1955-64); he retained an interest in the company but became a radiobiologist of distinction. I got to know him more than 40 years ago when I was researching Cumbrian history.
The son of Sir Samuel Scott and his wife Nancy (nee Anderson), he was educated at Charterhouse school. After studying natural sciences at King’s College, Cambridge, and undertaking clinical training at St Thomas’ hospital, he qualified in 1946, and 30 years later he was awarded a doctorate by Cambridge for his research into radiobiology. He became engaged by the charismatic Hal Gray’s research, which used physics to contribute to medicine. In the 1950s, Oliver showed how hyperbaric oxygen chambers could double the sensitivity of certain tumours to radiological treatment, offering a successful therapy widely used for three decades.
His subsequent research career contributed to stem cell identification, oxygenation of cancers, the importance of eliminating the effect of transplantation antigens in experimental cancers, the use of multiple treatments each day to combat fast-growing tumours, and the use of mathematical simulations in cancer therapy.
Gray’s career ran into difficulties in 1953, through professional differences with his clinician director at the Hammersmith hospital. Oliver rescued it, negotiating with the Medical Research Council and others to establish the British Empire Cancer Campaign Research Unit at Mount Vernon hospital, Northwood, west London. After Gray’s death in 1965, Oliver followed as director, and the Gray Laboratory, as the research unit is now known, became the leading research centre in experimental radiotherapy in the world.
Ill-health forced his retirement in 1969, but he continued to be involved in research. At the height of the cold war he visited the Soviet Union to represent the interests of a research colleague and supported the Pugwash conferences led by his friend and colleague Joseph Rotblat. He was president of the oncology section of the Royal Society of Medicine (1987-88) and became an honorary fellow of the British Institute of Radiology in 1999.
Oliver was a generous but reticent benefactor, his medical research trust making many grants each year. In Cumbria, with his family, he gave Glencoyne, the site of Wordsworth’s Daffodils, to the National Trust, and supported the Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal, and Blackwell, the arts and crafts house overlooking Windermere.
He married Phoebe (nee Tolhurst), in 1951. She died in May. Together, with letters or gifts, they brought relief or happiness. They supported young musicians financially and arranged chamber music evenings at home, enjoying as much time as possible at Yews, the family home near Bowness.
He is survived by his son, Christopher, and two daughters, Hermione and Camilla.
