Hirst's father had died when he was young so the straitened family circumstances meant that holidays were spent with farm worker relatives on the north Norfolk coast. Here he spent nearly as much time with the coastal fishermen as on the farms so that he developed a keen interest both in farming and the sea. For war service he enlisted with the Royal Navy.He elected to train for Coastal Forces. Part of the training was at Roedean School (which with some foresight had been vacated by its young ladies).
He attended Solihull Grammar School and in 1939 was awarded a Warwickshire County Major Scholarship to go on to university but almost with the award came his mobilisation papers. Spores or pollen could be identified by species and their prevalence in the air could be linked to environmental conditions or seasons. The information helped to explain the onset of plant diseases or allergic reactions in susceptible human patients and greatly increased the growing interest in aerobiology. The sampler became known as the "Hirst Spore Trap" and soon was being used to study both the spread of fungal pathogens and the changing airborne concentrations of human allergens. Further modifications have been made to the Hirst trap but its essential nature and use continue to this day.Jim Hirst was of the generation whose academic careers came to an abrupt halt with the outbreak of war in 1939 He was born in 1921 in a small village near Birmingham. J M HIRST was the inventor of the "Hirst Spore Trap".
The pollen counts broadcast in the media for hay-fever sufferers during our summer months are in large measure a direct legacy of his work. In 1950, when Hirst joined the staff of Rothamsted Experimental Station in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, the Agricultural Research Council was still much concerned with increasing home food production. His task was to study the spread of potato blight to find better disease control; when or how far spores of the fungus could spread was still conjecture To monitor spore dispersal he developed a new air sampler. In it a small pump sucked air through a slit to impact spores on to a microscope slide that was moved, by clockwork, slowly past the slit over 24 hours. Microscopic examination of the slide gave a ready picture of the time when spores had been in the air. It became apparent from the other spores and pollen being caught that there was a distinct and recognisable air-flora. It is vital that someone does, because he is one of the most important figures in Anglo-Irish history In the meantime we shouldn't give up. Who knows, maybe in 20 or 30 years' time a frail old bearded man called Gerry Adams will appear on TV or in the press, talking frankly about his precise role in Northern Irish affairs during the last few decades.Eamonn O'NeilThe writer is a contributing editor to `GQ'..
