Ronald Whittam was born in Chadderton, within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Lancashire, on 21 March 1925. He is the eldest of three sons and one daughter of Edward Whittam and May Whittam.[1] His parents owned a bakery business in Butler Green, Chadderton.[2] He left school at the age of 14 to work in the family business. He voluntarily attended educational evening classes and at the age of 16 had day release to the Municipal Technical College, Oldham. He achieved the School Certificate.[3]
Whittam reached the age of 18 during World War II in 1943 and joined the Royal Air Force. He was selected to join the PNB scheme: pilot, navigator, bomb-aimer. He passed the PNB scheme, in 50 Initial Training Wing at RAF Bridgnorth, Shropshire.[4] In 1947 he was demobbed from National Service, then commenced university life.[5]
Whittam received his BSc degree in Chemistry, at the University of Manchester in 1951.[1] His tutor was Thomas K. Walker who by then had finished working with Chaim Weizmann in the University.[6] He gained an early insight for research with Professor Herbert Stanley Raper and Alfred Alexander Harper.[3]
From 1958 to 1966, Whittam was at the University of Oxford. During that time, he was again in the same department of Sir Hans Krebs who was Whitley Professor of Biochemistry. He was awarded a M.A. at the University of Oxford. In the first two years he conducted research as scientific research staff of the Medical Research Unit.[20][21][16][18] Whittam proved the pacemaker effect of the sodium pump on metabolism with red blood cells.[22] He spent over half of 1958 at Columbia University, New York, working with David Nachmansohn on electrophysiology with single cell electroplaques and the electric eel.[3] Whittam discovered how much potassium is released from a cell of a mammalian.[23][24][25] In 1960 he became a Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, joining New College, yet also made a member of the Senior Common Room at Hertford College.[1] He was a moderator for exams in physiology having been asked by Professor Sir Lindor Brown, the Waynflete Professors of Physiology.[3] A real advance in physiology was made by Whittam in 1962 when he had three Papers published: Spatial asymmetry in the stimulation of a membrane adenosine triphosphatases; the asymmetrical stimulation of a membrane adenosine triphosphatase in relation to active cation transport and directional effects of the alkali metal ions on adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis in erythrocyte ghosts. This research was referred to by The Royal Society upon Whittam being elected a Fellow, "Ronald Whittam conducted important studies of the mechanism of active transport of ions in animal tissues. He demonstrated the special asymmetry of the ATPase of the red blood cell membrane, which acts only when Na+ is inside and K+ is outside the membrane. He was the first to demonstrate that active transport can exert a feedback control over the rate of cellular metabolism. These concepts, of directionality as an inherent part of an enzyme reaction in membranes, are of fundamental significance for the understanding of the relations between physiological function and the mechanism of enzyme action."[26]
In 1966, Whittam became the first Chair of General Physiology in the University of Leicester,[27] where he established a new Laboratory of Physiology,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] that was re-titled in 1968 as the Department of Physiology. It was the first Chair of General Physiology to have been created in Britain since Professor Sir William Bayliss was created Chair at University College London. He ran one of the largest physiology departments in UK universities, outside of Oxford and Cambridge. A lot of funding was hypothecated from the University Grants Committee.[27][3]
Whittam married Christine Patricia Margaret Lamb, the second daughter of Canon John W. Lamb, which marriage was officiated by Archbishop Michael Ramsey in 1957.[36] They had one son and one daughter.[1]
^National Association of Labour Student Organisations archive, Labour History Archive and Study Centre, Manchester, UK. National Archives Ref: LP/GS/NALSO
