The early education of a Nobel laureate: Henry Dale’s schooldays

Abstract

This paper examines the early schooling, in London and in Cambridge, of the later Nobel laureate and President of the Royal Society, the physiologist Sir Henry Dale (1875–1968). The influence of key teachers who directed the boy's interest towards science, and the impact of his schooling on his university education and later scientific career, are examined in particular. The significance of the zoologist Edward Butler of Tollington Park College, who taught Dale in his early teenage years, is highlighted.