Russell, Peter
2013 "Russell, Peter", 2013, HistoryTalk Peter Russell was fascinated with animals as a child and wanted to go into veterinary work. He left school at 15 without qualifications and became a technician at various hospitals, including Great Ormond Street, Hammersmith, and the Institute of Ch...
| Institution: | TUC - Trade Union Congress Library |
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| Language: | English |
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London
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/5E0279E3-AE25-4EF9-BFA6-41E0EFD6E253 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/EFDB37B6-E7B2-45C7-8346-7B0AB2EC7F0F |
| Summary: | 2013
"Russell, Peter", 2013, HistoryTalk
Peter Russell was fascinated with animals as a child and wanted to go into veterinary work. He left school at 15 without qualifications and became a technician at various hospitals, including Great Ormond Street, Hammersmith, and the Institute of Child Health. He describes how he was encouraged to study and develop his career (he was mentored by a work colleague). He studied part time at a technical college and gradually worked towards a Fellowship. He mentions that his employers were quite advanced for the time in terms of equal opportunities. He went on to work at University College. He describes pay scales, promotion and the relative job security. He worked on various developments in medicine including cancer research (working for Cancer Research Campaign), the CJD and SARS outbreaks and various positive breakthroughs in science.
He became the chief technician running the animal facilities entirely and was there for nearly 20 years. He talks about the difference between working in a university hospital and a charity compared to the commercial sector, where job satisfaction not money appealed to him and his colleagues. He sat on the exam board of IAT for 20 years, setting the maths question, which he says is ironic for someone who had an aversion to maths at school.
He joined ASTMS at 22 and was then a lifelong member of UNITE.
In his clip he talks about his anger he felt when he was young at the lack of opportunity provided by his school and how he was fortunate in where he went to work.
Click on the pdf icon to read the entire transcript or click on the mp3 icon to hear a clip of the interview. |
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| Physical Description: | Photograph TEXT |