Walter Heape FRS, FZS 1855 - 1929

Walter Heape was born into a large and wealthy family. His father Benjamin was a successful international entrepreneur with various businesses including rice and sugar milling, and cotton spinning. Walter was tutored at home until he was 17 when he went to work in his father’s businesses at home and abroad.
However, in 1879 he decided to refocus his life to the study of science. He was interested in how science might assist businesses. He studied at Owens College (now Manchester University) and at Trinity College Cambridge where he worked closely with Francis Maitland Balfour – whose brother Arthur would later become Prime Minister 1902-5. F.M. Balfour was Professor of Animal Morphology at Trinity College until he died falling from Mont Blanc in 1882 when he was only 30.

Walter Heape continued their work on embryology at Trinity College. He became the Demonstrator of Morphology teaching in F.M. Balfour’s place. There was a particular focus on understanding and improving sheep reproduction working with sheep kept at Trinity College. This work formed the foundation for farmers’ understanding of more productive sheep breeding and eventual artificial insemination.

In 1886 Heape became Assistant Secretary of the Marine Biological Association studying ocean life near Plymouth. Heape’s zoological interests were always wide ranging and he travelled all over the world to study more exotic animals. At the same time his entrepreneurial spirit meant he maintained an active interest in the family businesses.

On April 27, 1890 Heape succeeded in a groundbreaking experiment. He took 2 fertilized ova from an Angora rabbit and placed them into a newly pregnant, Belgian Hare rabbit. A month later the Belgian Hare rabbit produced 6 young, 2 of which were pure Angoras. This was the first time mammal embryos had been successfully transplanted paving the way for reproductive science today.

In 1891 Walter Heape married Ethel Ruston and they had 3 children none of whom followed a scientific career. The firstborn Brian Ruston Heape b. 1892 joined the army and died at Arras in World War 1; the second Barbara Mary Heape b.1896 married an army officer and moved to Kenya returning to England after her husband’s death and the lastborn Rodney Molyneux Heape b.1899 became a farmer in Victoria, Australia, then in Kenya and finally farming in Bells Yew Green, Sussex.

Walter Heape wrote several books and numerous papers explaining his work. His ‘Text Book of Embryology’ remains in print today. In 1923 Walter and Ethel retired to Manor Lodge, Bishops Down where Ethel died in 1925 and Walter died on September 10th 1929. They are buried together in Section A9 consecrated plot 264