In this #AnniversaryStory, Karen Harper, narrates her journey as she uncovers the legacy of her grandparents, Wallace and Gladys Harper, who were both physicists at the Cavendish Laboratory in the 1920s. Karen tells us about her efforts to bring her grandfather’s play ‘Not For a Cat’ to the Cambridge stage, while exploring the historical context of their careers at a particularly interesting time for physicists, especially women. After years of effort, the play will be produced by the Lady Margaret Players during the Cambridge Festival 2025, coinciding with the Cavendish Laboratory's 150th anniversary.
I don’t know if my grandparents were the first married couple from the Cavendish laboratory, but since my grandmother was one of the rare women physicists in the 1920s, I think it is quite likely. I am researching this possible fact and others as I continue my quest to discover more about my grandparents – Wallace Russell Harper and Gladys Isabel Harper (nickname Mac, maiden name Mackenzie), both alumni of the Cavendish and from St. John’s College and Newnham College.
Several years ago my dad and I were looking through some family history material and found a typed manuscript of a play, ‘Not For a Cat’, written by my grandfather. We also found the manuscript of a mystery novel (Scientists Under Suspicion) tied in three sections with pink ribbon in an old knitting box. My dad explained that his father wrote the play and novel when his research funding ran out. He also wrote two textbooks: Basic Principles of Fission Reactors (1961, Interscience Publishers) and Contact and Frictional Electrification (1967, Oxford).
Cavendish Physics Research Students group photo of 1929. Wallace Harper is first left in the second row and Gladys (Mac) Harper is front row second from left.
The play is about the potential hazards of nuclear energy to humans and cats: ‘You might have had cause to risk your life for a human being, but not, repeat not, for a cat.’, while the mystery novel investigates a murder in a physics laboratory.
The theme of women in science can be related to both the play and especially the novel, in which the victim and one of the suspects are the only women physicists in the laboratory.
After we discovered the manuscripts, I decided it would be wonderful to see the play performed. Because of my own experience with the labour movement (I was president of my union for three years) and the link to workplace health and safety, I decided to try to find a way to stage a reading of the play at the local workers theatre festival Mayworks in my home city, Halifax, Canada. I got in contact with a local playwright, actor and director, Garry Williams, who took an interest in the play and helped me understand some of its themes of the expendability of human life and the complex relationships of the characters mirroring societal issues.
The rediscovered draft for Wallace Russell Harper's play. It was written under the pseudonym Henry Latimer. (Jane Sponagle/CBC)
"It is stylish in its language, at times almost a comedy of manners, but then a document of its time with Cold War fear, espionage, and of course criminal negligence of worker and community safety," said Williams about the play. "My curiosity was particularly piqued by the complexities of some of the characters in their lives outside of the plot revolving around the reactor." Unfortunately we were not able to find a way to fund a production or reading in Halifax at this time.
Another idea I had – a dream – was to have the world premiere of ‘Not For a Cat’ at my grandfather’s alma mater, Cambridge University. When I found out about the Cambridge Festival, I decided it was the ideal place to launch the play. It took a few years, many emails and several zoom calls, but I was so excited when I found out that the Lady Margaret Players of St. John’s College (my dad and grandfather’s college) was eager to produce the play as part of this year’s Cambridge Festival! It is great timing since it is also the 150th anniversary of the Cavendish Laboratory, where my grandparents met.
The discovery of these manuscripts has led me down an unexpected path. I am or have been a professor, a scientist (forest biologist), an editor and a union leader, and now I have become our family’s historian. I have read through lots of material I have inherited and additional books such as two biographies of Klaus Fuchs, the atomic spy and a friend of my grandparents (they are mentioned in both biographies). Overall, I realize that the careers of these two Cavendish alumni took place at an interesting era for physicists, particularly women. My vision is now to write their biography and market it to academics studying the history of physics. I am doing research towards this goal and will continue with my trip to the UK in April.
I am very excited for my trip to Cambridge, which will include the World Premiere of ‘Not For a Cat’! I hope to meet current students and faculty in the Cavendish and see the sites including St. John’s and Nenwham Colleges. I will also visit the University of Bristol, where Gladys and Wallace were employed in the 1930s and during the war. I have discovered that this was a common path for Cavendish graduates.
Gladys and Wallace, the only picture I think I have of just my grandparents.
I recently discovered a letter that my grandmother wrote to me in 1982 when I was thirteen:
‘You seem to be like me and enjoy maths and physics ... In my young days girls were not really meant to study mathematics and my school disapproved of it, English was a more suitable subject! Fortunately, I had a strong-minded mother who told the headmistress I was to continue with mathematics and if the school could not or would not teach to the desired standard I would leave. I left and had some private coaching, passed the university maths entrance exam and went up the following session. … After a few years research at Edinburgh University, I went to Newnham College (Cambridge) to supervise their physics students and do research at the Cavendish Laboratory. Female physicists were rare birds in these days and it was most interesting working under Rutherford in the early days of nuclear physics.’
I have always been very proud of my grandmother and pleased to follow in her footsteps by pursuing science. More recently I am thoroughly enjoying learning more about my grandfather, who died when I was one. I feel like I have gotten to know him a lot more through his play and novel. I hope you will also learn more about Wallace and Gladys Harper by joining me at the World Premiere of ‘Not For a Cat’ at the Cambridge Festival.
'Not for a Cat: A Play for the Nuclear Age' will be performed at St. John’s College during the Cambridge Festival on 5 April. Tickets are available via the festival’s website here.