Michael Stewart Pease OBESupplement to the London Gazette
11 June 1966, p6542 (2 October 1890 – 27 July 1966) was a British classical geneticist at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Michael Pease was the son of

Edward Reynolds Pease Edward Reynolds Pease (23 December 1857 – 5 January 1955) was an English writer and a founding member of the Fabian Society. Early life Pease was born near Bristol, the son of devout Quakers, Thomas Pease (1816–1884) and Susanna Ann F ...

, writer and a founding member of the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...

, of the Pease family of

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

. He was educated at

Bedales School Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conventio ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he was elected chairman of the Cambridge University Fabian Society. On 24 February 1920 he married Helen Bowen Wedgwood, daughter of the Labour politician

Josiah Wedgwood IV Colonel Josiah Clement Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood, (16 March 1872 – 26 July 1943), sometimes referred to as Josiah Wedgwood IV, was a British Liberal and Labour politician who served in government under Ramsay MacDonald. He was a promin ...

(later 1st Baron Wedgwood), of the

Wedgwood Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapid ...

pottery family at

Chelsea Register Office Kensington and Chelsea Register Office is an office for the registration of births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships located in Chelsea Old Town Hall in Chelsea, London. It has hosted the weddings of many notable people. According to '' ...

. Their children include the physicist

Bas Pease Rendel Sebastian "Bas" Pease FRS (2 November 1922 – 17 October 2004) was a British physicist who strongly opposed nuclear weapons while advocating the use of nuclear fusion as a clean source of power. Biography Pease was born at 9 Brunswick ...

and Jocelyn Richenda Gammell Pease (1925–2003), who married the Nobel Prize–winning biologist

Andrew Huxley Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley (22 November 191730 May 2012) was an English physiologist and biophysicist. He was born into the prominent Huxley family. After leaving Westminster School in central London, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge on ...

. He worked at the Genetical Institute of Cambridge as assistant to

Reginald Crundall Punnett Reginald Crundall Punnett FRS (; 20 June 1875 – 3 January 1967) was a British geneticist who co-founded, with William Bateson, the ''Journal of Genetics'' in 1910. Punnett is probably best remembered today as the creator of the Punnett ...

, who created the first

auto-sexing Auto-sexing breeds of poultry are those in which the sex of newly-hatched chicks can be determined from the colour and markings of the down. Some breeds of chicken, of goose and of domestic pigeon have this characteristic. The idea of such a b ...

chicken breeds, the

Cambar The Cambar is the first autosexing breed of chicken intentionally created, and the first autosexing breed of poultry in general. The Cambar was developed by Reginald Punnett and Michael Pease in 1929. The Cambar was a mixture of the Barred Plymou ...

and

Legbar The Legbar is a rare British auto-sexing breed of chicken. It was created in the early twentieth century by Reginald Crundall Punnett and Michael Pease at the Genetical Institute of Cambridge University. They cross-bred American barred Plymou ...

, in which the sex of day-old chicks was clearly distinguishable from the plumage. When, in 1930, a separate poultry research facility was established, Pease headed it.F.A.E. Crew (1967)
Reginald Crundall Punnett. 1875-1967
''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society'' 13: 309-326. He also served as a Labour councillor on the Cambridge County Council for Girton. He was appointed to be an Ordinary Officers of the Civil Division of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

in 1966 for political and public services in Cambridgeshire. He was held in the civilian internment camp at Ruhleben, near Berlin, during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. His father, a Major at the time, asked whether he could be exchanged for a German prisoner wishing to return to Berlin, but without success. While interned Pease tried to get gardens put into the camp and on 27 April 1916 gave a lecture on dancing in Elizabethan times.The Ruhleben story
/ref>

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pease, Michael Stewart 1890 births 1966 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British geneticists Officers of the Order of the British Empire World War I civilian detainees held by Germany British World War I prisoners of war

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

People from Girton, Cambridgeshire People educated at Bedales School