Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
Duncan GUTHRIE (1911-1994)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE – Duncan Guthrie, charity founder, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews backstage at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, having been led to believe he was there to take part in someone else's tribute.
Duncan, who was born in London to Scottish parents, spent his early adult life as an explorer, actor, poet and soldier - including working with the Special Operations Executive in enemy-occupied France during the Second World War.
When his eldest child developed poliomyelitis in 1949, Duncan made it his mission to alert society to the problems of the disease and established the National Fund for Polio Research in 1952. The fund would provide money for research fellowships, support research in the prevention and diagnosis of polio, and provide equipment for treating the disease.
programme details...
- Edition No: 26
- Subject No: 26
- Broadcast live: Mon 4 Feb 1957
- Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
- Venue: King's Theatre, Hammersmith
- Series: 2
- Edition: 11
on the guest list...
- Stanley Gaywood
- message from Michael Wilding
- Rosamund John
- Col H H Chandor
- Rene Couture
- Jack Moore
- Prunella - wife
- Peter Kneebone
- George W A Dick
- Janet - daughter Filmed tribute:
- Walter Creighton
production team...
- Researchers: Peter Moore, Nigel Ward
- Writer: Larry Forrester
- Director: unknown
- Producer: T Leslie Jackson
Eamonn Andrews says 'This Is Your Life' to Duncan Guthrie as he sits unsuspecting, back-stage with Jack Armstrong, Harry Lane, Joan Conquest and Anthony Viccars
Evening Chronicle 5 February 1957
THIS Is Your Life found its ideal subject last night - Mr Duncan Guthrie founder of the National Fund for Polio Research.
We in Newcastle remember Duncan Guthrie as the burly enthusiastic Assistant Regional Director of the Arts Council when that excellent organisation still had an office in the city.
In those days Mr Guthrie had a flat in Bessie Surtees House on the Quayside and he used to take a deep delight in his 16th century home and the magnificent river views it commanded.
It was always an education to hear this man talk. He had been in his time a bank clerk, a coffee planter, a cattle farmer, a bookseller, a soldier, an actor, an art critic, a writer.
He had an extremely adventurous war. He went to Finland to fight the Russians, was interned, escaped, stowed away on a cargo ship, reached America and joined the Canadian Army.
He was parachuted into Occupied France to fight with the Maquis and later parachuted into Burma to fight Japanese. There he lived for three months behind enemy lines.
We sometimes wondered about his future for it seemed obvious that the Arts Council could not hold such an incorrigible rolling stone for long.
His daughter Janet provided the answer. From the day the child caught polio he dedicated himself to the fight against the disease with a remarkable single-mindedness.
And last night, when Janet pushed through the curtains, radiant, bonny, almost recovered, one knew that Duncan Guthrie's happiness was complete.
The Northern Whig and Belfast Post 5 February 1957
ON TV PROGRAMME
PROFESSOR G. W. A. DICK, Professor of microbiology at Queen's University, Belfast, who is conducting experiments with "life immunity" polio vaccine, appeared on last night's BBC television programme "This Is Your Life", to pay tribute to Mr Duncan Guthrie, Director of the Poliomyelitis Research Fund.
Professor Dick spoke of the great help the fund had been in the fight against polio.
In the programme, the story was told of how Mr Guthrie was led to his real mission in life when his daughter was stricken with polio, and of how the fund began, with one man in a single room.
Restless life
Earlier Eamonn Andrews had traced what he described as Mr Guthrie's restless life, and had spoken of the careers that made him a globetrotter and that took him on the stage.
He also spoke for a period of his trip to Finland as a member of the International Brigade; his escape from occupied Europe to America; his joining the Canadian Army; his transfer to a British regiment; his work with the underground movements; of a post-war job in CEMA, and finally of his taking up the task that is now his whole life.
Mr Guthrie's daughter, who had made an excellent recovery from polio, appeared at the end of the programme.
Belfast Telegraph 5 February 1957
PROFESSOR G. W. A. DICK, of Queen's University, who hopes to perfect a polio vaccine giving life-long protection from the disease, appeared on BBC television last night.
Professor Dick, who holds the chair of microbiology at Queen's, took part in the programme "This Is Your Life" which featured Duncan Guthrie, director of the National Fund for Poliomyelitis Research.
Mr Guthrie was in Belfast two months ago, when an Ulster branch of the fund was inaugurated.
Professor Dick paid tribute in an interview with Eamonn Andrews to the part played by Mr Guthrie and the fund in the fight against polio. Mr Guthrie's daughter was once a victim of the disease.
Series 2 subjects
Peter Scott | Ada Reeve | Peter Methven | Sue Ryder | Harry S Pepper | Compton Mackenzie | Maud Fairman | Billy SmartBrian Hession | John Barbirolli | Duncan Guthrie | Esmond Knight | Sammy McCarthy | Edwin Madron | Diana Dors
Parry Jones | Percy Flood | G H Elliott | Stuart Hibberd