Another visit to London 1923
With his family still in Europe Flynn could finance another trip to London through a fisheries development scheme. (Flynn’s involvement with the with Tasmanian Fisheries Development is dealt with in the later.) Using for the term set aside by the Ralston Bequest for research. Theo intended to leave Sydney on 17 September 1923. He expected to be with Hill at University College London before the end of October, stay a month and then go to Holland and Austria. However his departure was delayed. From on board the Jervis Bay off Fremantle on 21 December he wrote to Thomas –
‘I am last on my way to London. My finances have now considerably mended.’
He asked the Registrar to send the Australian Museum a cheque for £10 to cover the expenses of his research there and to post Hill six copies of his paper on Perameles.
‘You will find them in my office. … I am looking forward to seeing you in June. I would be glad if you could remind Grant that he should empty the radiator pipes and refill them before I return.’ [Flynn Staff file 21 Dec 1923]
Such a request was probably pushing his relationship with Thomas.
His next letter, nearly four months spoke of being -
Very hurt at not receiving answer to his letter from Fremantle and you have not sent the copies as I asked you. … I bought a book in London for the Library.. and a microtome in Paris for about a third of the price we would have to pay in Australia….
I hope everyone is in good trim. I will be glad to be back at the little lab for which I have great affection in spite of its drawbacks…
I would like you to write to J Farrow of Albert Park Moonah asking him to be ready to trap for me when I return.
Please remember me to all (Particularly to Dunbabin and MacDougall). I hope Mrs Thomas has improved in health and is happy in her new environment (34 View Street).
[DG McDougall was the Law Professor and R L Dunbabin was Professor in Classics.]
Flynn reached Hill’s new laboratory, a ‘beautiful place’ in mid January 1924. A laboratory was set aside for his use and he revised his paper with David Watson on the Wynyard whale. Watson had now succeeded Hill as Jodrell Professor of Zoology. Born in Lancashire, he was originally a geologist and published a paper with Marie Stopes, then a paleo-botanist, on fossils in coal. In 1917 he had married Katherine Parker who was initially an undergraduate student of Hill’s and went on work with him on her doctoral thesis, published in April 1917. [Parker, K. M. 1917 The development of the hypophysis cerebri, pre-oral gut, and related structures in the Marsupialia. Journal of Anatomy 51: 13-249 Flynn Staff file 4 Jul 1924] Flynn, Hill and the two Watsons formed a close-knit group. During this time Flynn drafted a paper on the transference of the marsupial embryo to the pouch that would later be published by the Workers Educational Association in Hobart, but apparently the Royal Society in London decided not to publish the whale paper as he had expected.
Within the nurturing climate of Hill’s Department, Flynn began to further develop his theories on the corpus luteum. He was very happy and proud that his expertise in embryology was now being recognised internationally. There was much interest in London in the reptile placenta, and he ‘met with all sorts of courtesy’. However his stay was marred by an illness brought on the worst winter in years.
In March Theo spent three weeks at the Sorbonne and at the Musee d’Histoire Naturelle. Hill wanted him to go to an anatomical conference in Strasbourg but by then his ‘mended finances’ had exhausted. He had not expected the inflation in accommodation costs generated by the approaching Empire Exhibition in London and the Olympic Games in Paris. The same reason forced him to abandon his hopes to visit Utrecht and Vienna. He spent £150 more than he planned for and cabled Thomas requesting the University to advance him three months salary. When he returned he sought refunds for the help of attendants at the British Museum, Hill’s laboratory and in Paris ‘Naturally under the circumstances receipts were not obtained for them.’ The University Council agreed to pay him £25 towards his expenses and to allow him a similar sum each year.[Flynn Staff file 4 Jul 1924]