Henry Guinness de Laszlo

HENRY GUINNESS DE LASZLO

1901-1967

(Summary of a longer biography written by Stephen de Laszlo and his mother Isa Von Hessert,

son and widow of Henry, c.1997)

Henry, the eldest of the five sons of Philip and Lucy de László, was born in Budapest on 11th June, 1901. He was educated at Twyford Preparatory School from 1910-1914 and Rugby School from 1914-1918, Corpus Christi College Cambridge where he gained an M.A. in Physics in 1922. During 1925 he studied in Paris and then at Zurich University, where he achieved a PhD in Chemistry, 1926. During his time at Cambridge he worked at Rutherford’s Laboratories.

He moved to America where he became Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (M.I.T.), Boston, from 1927-9, building and establishing M.I.T.'s spectroscopy laboratory. Between 1931 and 1934 he was a Research Fellow at University College, London. In 1934 he founded L. Light & Co., specialising in producing and providing rare organic chemicals to research laboratories world-wide. In 1947 he went on to found Colour Centre Laboratories specialising in photographing museum collections in 35mm for resale and four years later founded the Fertility Research Centre, set up to research ethnobotanical means and methods of contraception.

From 1950 onwards he accumulated an extensive library on Medicinal Botany, now at Cambridge - 'The Henry de Laszlo L library of Medical Botany'. In 1965 he patented the use of graphite for artificial heart valves; two years later he patented the use of 'Prunus Africanum' to alleviate Prostatic Adenoma. He published numerous papers on organic and inorganic chemistry, electron microscopy and medicinal botany.

He collected Chinese ceramics and bronzes of the early dynasties, the greater part of which are now housed at the University of Durham, with the Gulbenkian Collection.

He married twice; firstly Violet Staub in 1927, with whom he had a son, Michael, born in 1935. Two years after his divorce, in 1953, he married Juliane (Isa) Fischer; they had a son, Stephen in 1957 and a daughter, Pauline in 1962. Henry died following injuries received in an automobile accident on 30th October, 1967.

Also See Egami or 4380.doc

The following is from Val Hemingway , who, as Val Price, worked as Henry’s secretary for 6-9 months in 1966. Info sent by email March 04.

Contact details: Val Hemingway, Vine Cottage, 2 Police Station Rd., Hersham, Surrey KT12 4JQ Tel: Walton-on-Thames 243751 valhemingway@hotmail.com

Henry lived at a house on the edge of the Wentworth Golf Course, possibly called Brightside. It had an impressive design and many of his father’s portraits lined the long corridor. As well as secretarial work she helped to catalogue his extensive library which was in the room where they worked. She remembers him attending the Leipzig Trade Fair. Henry was upset that his wife, Isa, and the other directors had ousted him from the day- to- day running of the company (Koch Light Laboratories). He sometimes mentioned divorcing her and remarrying his first wife. He suffered from glaucoma and Val understood that he died when he got out of his car on the A30 and was struck down by another vehicle.

She has a daughter Maxine aged abut 5 , who used to play with Henry & Isa’s son Stephen from time to time.