Hedley Marston

Hedley Ralph Marston (26 August 1900 – 25 August 1965) was an Australian biochemist who worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

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Marston was born in Bordertown, South Australia and educated at Unley District High School, Adelaide, where he met Mark Oliphant. He attended the University of Adelaide but did not complete a degree due to failing Mathematics.

Marston was appointed a demonstrator in the university's department of physiology and biochemistry after a chance meeting with Professor Thorburn Robertson in 1922. On 1 March 1928 he joined Robertson's staff in the division of animal nutrition, CSIRO, Adelaide. Marston greatly impressed Robertson, and became the division's acting-chief on Robertson's death in 1930.

Marston claimed a break-through in the treatment of 'coast disease' in sheep; overwhelming evidence, however points to the original discovery by Dick Thomas and E. W. L. Lines.

In the 1950s, Marston's research into fallout from the British nuclear tests at Maralinga brought Marston into bitter conflict with the government appointed Atomic Weapons Tests Safety Committee. He was vindicated posthumously by the McClelland Royal Commission, which found that significant radiation hazards existed at many of the Maralinga test sites long after the tests.

Marston was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science in 1957 by the Australian National University.

References

• Roger Cross, 'Marston, Hedley Ralph (1900 - 1965)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, MUP, 2000, pp 310-312.