Samuel Victor Perry
Encyclopedia
Samuel Victor Perry FRS
(16 July 1918 – 17 December 2009) was an English
biochemist who was a pioneer in the field of muscle biochemistry. In his earlier years he was a rugby union
lock who played club rugby for Cambridge University R.U.F.C.
and international rugby for England
.
After schooling in Southport
Perry took a biochemistry degree at the University of Liverpool
. His academic career was then interrupted by war service in the Royal Artillery
, though he spent much of the Second World War in Italian and German prisoner-of-war camps after being captured during the Western Desert Campaign
. After his liberation and demobilisation, he undertook doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge
. This was followed by a period of post-doctoral study in the United States, before returning to Cambridge as a lecturer. In 1959 he moved to the University of Birmingham
as head of its new biochemistry department.
Perry's later career saw him serve on several of the British research councils, and working with the charities the British Heart Foundation
and the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974.
in 1918, and spent his early years in King's Lynn
. His family moved to Southport
, where he received his secondary education at the town's grammar school
, King George V School
. His father died of a heart condition when Perry was 13, and his mother struggled to financially support his university education. He gained entry to the University of Liverpool
where he studied biochemistry; at the time one of only three universities in Britain which offered undergraduate courses in the field. At Liverpool he met future Nobel Prize winner, Rodney Porter
and the two struck up a life-long friendship. Both men graduated in 1939; their postgraduate ambitions were halted by the outbreak of the Second World War.
and was offered the choice of a position working on chemical warfare
or joining the Royal Artillery
. He chose artillery, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant
on 5 July 1941. He was posted to Egypt where he arrived in August 1941. Perry's frontline experience in the army was short, as he was captured early in 1942 when his unit was over-run by Rommel
's forces as they attempted to slow the German advance from Benghazi. Perry spent the next three and a half years in various German prisoner-of-war camps, initially in Italy; after the confusion brought by the Italian Armistice, he made his first escape attempt. Breaking through a German cordon he tried to hide his escape by crawling through a wheat field, but was quickly recaptured. Over the next few days he and his fellow prisoners were transported by rail farther north towards German camps. Perry jumped off the moving train at Mantua
and made his way on foot to the north of the town. As he approached a bridge, he was recognised by a German guard who had recaptured him only five days earlier in Perry's first escape attempt. Perry was escorted to a commandeered villa in the town and locked in a bathroom until he was able to be transferred again. He spent time in camps in Germany and Silesia before the Russian advance forced his movement west to Brunswick. On the journey he made his third and final escape bid. He and a fellow prisoner cut their way out of a cattle truck and leapt from the moving train. Again he was recaptured, this time by a German patrol. He was then taken to appear before a military court in Hildesheim, where he was court-martialed for damaging a German train, and placed in solitary confinement for a month.
Despite his numerous failed attempts, Perry managed never to lose a copy of Annual Review of Biochemistry of 1942, volume 11, sent to him through the aid of the Red Cross. He lectured within the prison camps, and ran courses on biochemistry and agricultural chemistry. He was eventually liberated by the United States Army
, and on his return to Britain was discharged from the army.
to complete his PhD. At Cambridge he studied under Kenneth Bailey, and shared a laboratory with his old friend Porter and Fred Sanger. In Cambridge, Perry developed a reputation as a major figure in muscle research and won the Trinity College
prize fellowship for his pioneering doctoral thesis. He took up a lecturing post in Cambridge and in 1948, while still at the university, he married Maureen Shaw, an artist and actress he met in Southport.
He took a post at the University of Birmingham
in 1959, and later served on the research committees of the Science Research Council
the Medical Research Council
, Agricultural Research Council and the British Heart Foundation
. He was also spent twenty years associated with the British research charity the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
.
In 1959, just before his move to Birmingham, he purchased a ruined 18th century watermill in Dinas Cross
, Pembrokeshire
in Wales. This became a massive project, and required major conversions and landscaping. During the 1960s he persuaded his students to help improve his home and its gardens as part of their "PhD research". After his retirement, he and wife Maureen moved permanently to the Watermill in Wales.
In March 1974, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed more than 300 scientific papers throughout his career. In 1984 he gave the Croonian Lecture
on Calcium and the regulation of contractile activity.
in an uncontracted state, and from that he was able to characterize their protein components. Further observation of the myofibrils, and the crude preparations of the extracted contractile protein actin
s and myosin
s taken from them, showed that they required trace levels of calcium
for contractile
activity. Perry then used the calcium chelator
EGTA
to confirm that calcium was essential for the regulation of muscle contraction. This was a major breakthrough in the understanding of how muscle contractions are regulated. Seven years later Setsuro Ebashi, identified the factor responsible for calcium sensitivity in muscles, which he called troponin
.
Perry furthered his research by isolating the 'head' fragment of myosin by fractionating
the myosin and its proteolytic
fragments. He called this fragment subfragment-1. This research established Perry as one of the leading figures in the muscle field, and in 1959 he was invited to head a new Biochemistry department at Birmingham University
. In Birmingham he and his team focused on the calcium regulatory troponin complex in skeletal muscle. They were able to isolate and then characterize the troponin, troponin I
. This in turn led to the development of antibodies for muscle tissue typing which led to improved method of detecting heart muscle damage.
Perry continued his research at Birmingham, and spent considerable research on myosin light chain
phosphorylation
. Although he and his team were unable to establish the precise function of regulatory light chains in vertebrate skeletal and cardiac myosins, it laid the foundation for a whole new field of regulation of how phosphorylation regulates movement in smooth muscle and in non-muscle cells.
in 1946 and 1947, and impressed enough to draw the attention of the RFU
board of selectors. He was first capped for his country for the 1947 Five Nations Championship
, in a match against Wales, the first match for England since 1939. Due to the passage of time between the start of the war and recommencement of games, only Dick Guest of England had any prior international experience. Despite Perry appearing in a completely uncapped pack, the forwards played brilliantly and an unfancied England won 9-6. Perry played in one more match of the 1947 tournament, an away game to Ireland, which England lost comprehensively.
Perry was next selected in early 1948 to face the touring Australia team. England lost the game 11–0, with the opposing locks dominating the line-out play. Although Perry had faced defeat with England, four weeks later he was selected to face the same Australian side as part of invitational team the Barbarians
, in their first match against overseas international opposition. Played at the Cardiff Arms Park
, the Barbarians won 9–6.
Despite the England loss to Australia, Perry was back in the squad for the 1948 Five Nations Championship
, playing in all four encounters. It was a disaster of a campaign for England, drawing against Wales, and losing to Ireland, Scotland and France, and ending bottom of the league. Perry never represented his country further, deciding to concentrate on his academic career instead.
He died on the 17 December 2009, survived by his wife and three children.
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
(16 July 1918 – 17 December 2009) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
biochemist who was a pioneer in the field of muscle biochemistry. In his earlier years he was a rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
lock who played club rugby for Cambridge University R.U.F.C.
Cambridge University R.U.F.C.
The Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club, or CURUFC, is the rugby union club of Cambridge University, and plays Oxford University in the annual Varsity Match at Twickenham stadium every December. CURUFC players wear light blue and white hooped jerseys with a red lion crest...
and international rugby for England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...
.
After schooling in Southport
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
Perry took a biochemistry degree at the University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
. His academic career was then interrupted by war service in the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
, though he spent much of the Second World War in Italian and German prisoner-of-war camps after being captured during the Western Desert Campaign
Western Desert Campaign
The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War, was the initial stage of the North African Campaign during the Second World War. The campaign was heavily influenced by the availability of supplies and transport. The ability of the Allied forces, operating from besieged Malta, to...
. After his liberation and demobilisation, he undertook doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. This was followed by a period of post-doctoral study in the United States, before returning to Cambridge as a lecturer. In 1959 he moved to the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
as head of its new biochemistry department.
Perry's later career saw him serve on several of the British research councils, and working with the charities the British Heart Foundation
British Heart Foundation
The British Heart Foundation is a charity organisation in Britain that funds research, education, care and awareness campaigns aimed to prevent heart diseases in humans.-Foundation:...
and the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign is a British medical research charity dedicated to the curing of the neurological condition muscular dystrophy. It was founded as the Muscular Dystrophy Group in 1959 and changed its name to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign in 1999....
. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974.
Early life
Samuel Perry was born on the Isle of WightIsle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
in 1918, and spent his early years in King's Lynn
King's Lynn
King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
. His family moved to Southport
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
, where he received his secondary education at the town's grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
, King George V School
King George V School
King George V School , often shortened to "KGV" is a co-educational international secondary independent school of the English Schools Foundation, located in the Ho Man Tin area of Hong Kong. Currently school 1,700 students in the Kowloon peninsula, it is one of the oldest schools in Hong Kong,...
. His father died of a heart condition when Perry was 13, and his mother struggled to financially support his university education. He gained entry to the University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
where he studied biochemistry; at the time one of only three universities in Britain which offered undergraduate courses in the field. At Liverpool he met future Nobel Prize winner, Rodney Porter
Rodney Robert Porter
Rodney Robert Porter, FRS was an English biochemist and Nobel laureate.Born in Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire, England, Rodney Robert Porter received his Bachelors of Sciences degree from the University of Liverpool in 1939 for Biochemistry. He moved to the University of Cambridge where...
and the two struck up a life-long friendship. Both men graduated in 1939; their postgraduate ambitions were halted by the outbreak of the Second World War.
Military career
Perry joined the British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and was offered the choice of a position working on chemical warfare
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
or joining the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
. He chose artillery, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
on 5 July 1941. He was posted to Egypt where he arrived in August 1941. Perry's frontline experience in the army was short, as he was captured early in 1942 when his unit was over-run by Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
's forces as they attempted to slow the German advance from Benghazi. Perry spent the next three and a half years in various German prisoner-of-war camps, initially in Italy; after the confusion brought by the Italian Armistice, he made his first escape attempt. Breaking through a German cordon he tried to hide his escape by crawling through a wheat field, but was quickly recaptured. Over the next few days he and his fellow prisoners were transported by rail farther north towards German camps. Perry jumped off the moving train at Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
and made his way on foot to the north of the town. As he approached a bridge, he was recognised by a German guard who had recaptured him only five days earlier in Perry's first escape attempt. Perry was escorted to a commandeered villa in the town and locked in a bathroom until he was able to be transferred again. He spent time in camps in Germany and Silesia before the Russian advance forced his movement west to Brunswick. On the journey he made his third and final escape bid. He and a fellow prisoner cut their way out of a cattle truck and leapt from the moving train. Again he was recaptured, this time by a German patrol. He was then taken to appear before a military court in Hildesheim, where he was court-martialed for damaging a German train, and placed in solitary confinement for a month.
Despite his numerous failed attempts, Perry managed never to lose a copy of Annual Review of Biochemistry of 1942, volume 11, sent to him through the aid of the Red Cross. He lectured within the prison camps, and ran courses on biochemistry and agricultural chemistry. He was eventually liberated by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, and on his return to Britain was discharged from the army.
Biochemistry career
Back in Britain, Perry took a post at the University of CambridgeUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
to complete his PhD. At Cambridge he studied under Kenneth Bailey, and shared a laboratory with his old friend Porter and Fred Sanger. In Cambridge, Perry developed a reputation as a major figure in muscle research and won the Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
prize fellowship for his pioneering doctoral thesis. He took up a lecturing post in Cambridge and in 1948, while still at the university, he married Maureen Shaw, an artist and actress he met in Southport.
He took a post at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
in 1959, and later served on the research committees of the Science Research Council
Science and Engineering Research Council
The Science and Engineering Research Council used to be the UK agency in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities including astronomy, biotechnology and biological sciences, space research and particle physics...
the Medical Research Council
Medical Research Council (UK)
The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
, Agricultural Research Council and the British Heart Foundation
British Heart Foundation
The British Heart Foundation is a charity organisation in Britain that funds research, education, care and awareness campaigns aimed to prevent heart diseases in humans.-Foundation:...
. He was also spent twenty years associated with the British research charity the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign is a British medical research charity dedicated to the curing of the neurological condition muscular dystrophy. It was founded as the Muscular Dystrophy Group in 1959 and changed its name to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign in 1999....
.
In 1959, just before his move to Birmingham, he purchased a ruined 18th century watermill in Dinas Cross
Dinas Cross
Dinas Cross is a village in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated between Fishguard and Newport in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and is a popular holiday destination on the A487. The village has its own elected community council and gives its name to an electoral ward of Pembrokeshire...
, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
in Wales. This became a massive project, and required major conversions and landscaping. During the 1960s he persuaded his students to help improve his home and its gardens as part of their "PhD research". After his retirement, he and wife Maureen moved permanently to the Watermill in Wales.
In March 1974, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed more than 300 scientific papers throughout his career. In 1984 he gave the Croonian Lecture
Croonian Lecture
The Croonian Lectures are prestigious lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians.Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow one lectureship at both the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians...
on Calcium and the regulation of contractile activity.
Academic research
After spending his postdoctoral period in America, Perry returned to Cambridge. Using his expertise in manipulating muscle tissue combined with his biochemical knowledge, he was able to isolate myofibrilMyofibril
A myofibril is a basic unit of a muscle. Muscles are composed of tubular cells called myocytes or myofibers. Myofibers are composed of tubular myofibrils. Myofibrils are composed of long proteins such as actin, myosin, and titin, and other proteins that hold them together...
in an uncontracted state, and from that he was able to characterize their protein components. Further observation of the myofibrils, and the crude preparations of the extracted contractile protein actin
Actin
Actin is a globular, roughly 42-kDa moonlighting protein found in all eukaryotic cells where it may be present at concentrations of over 100 μM. It is also one of the most highly-conserved proteins, differing by no more than 20% in species as diverse as algae and humans...
s and myosin
Myosin
Myosins comprise a family of ATP-dependent motor proteins and are best known for their role in muscle contraction and their involvement in a wide range of other eukaryotic motility processes. They are responsible for actin-based motility. The term was originally used to describe a group of similar...
s taken from them, showed that they required trace levels of calcium
Calcium
Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft gray alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust...
for contractile
Muscle contraction
Muscle fiber generates tension through the action of actin and myosin cross-bridge cycling. While under tension, the muscle may lengthen, shorten, or remain the same...
activity. Perry then used the calcium chelator
Chelation
Chelation is the formation or presence of two or more separate coordinate bonds between apolydentate ligand and a single central atom....
EGTA
EGTA (chemical)
EGTA is a polyamino carboxylic acid, a chelating agent that is related to the better known EDTA, but with a much higher affinity for calcium than for magnesium ions...
to confirm that calcium was essential for the regulation of muscle contraction. This was a major breakthrough in the understanding of how muscle contractions are regulated. Seven years later Setsuro Ebashi, identified the factor responsible for calcium sensitivity in muscles, which he called troponin
Troponin
400px|thumb|right|alt = Colored dice with checkered background|Ribbon representation of the human cardiac troponin core complex in the calcium-saturated form...
.
Perry furthered his research by isolating the 'head' fragment of myosin by fractionating
Fractionation
See also: Fractionated spacecraftFractionation is a separation process in which a certain quantity of a mixture is divided up in a number of smaller quantities in which the composition changes according to a gradient. Fractions are collected based on differences in a specific property of the...
the myosin and its proteolytic
Proteolysis
Proteolysis is the directed degradation of proteins by cellular enzymes called proteases or by intramolecular digestion.-Purposes:Proteolysis is used by the cell for several purposes...
fragments. He called this fragment subfragment-1. This research established Perry as one of the leading figures in the muscle field, and in 1959 he was invited to head a new Biochemistry department at Birmingham University
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
. In Birmingham he and his team focused on the calcium regulatory troponin complex in skeletal muscle. They were able to isolate and then characterize the troponin, troponin I
Troponin I
Troponin I is a part of the troponin complex. It binds to actin in thin myofilaments to hold the actin-tropomyosin complex in place. Because of it myosin cannot bind actin in relaxed muscle...
. This in turn led to the development of antibodies for muscle tissue typing which led to improved method of detecting heart muscle damage.
Perry continued his research at Birmingham, and spent considerable research on myosin light chain
Light chain
A light chain is the small polypeptide subunit of a protein complex.More specifically, it can refer to:* Immunoglobulin light chain* Ferritin light chain* Myosin light chain* Kinesin light chain* Dynein light chainLight chain may also refer to:...
phosphorylation
Phosphorylation
Phosphorylation is the addition of a phosphate group to a protein or other organic molecule. Phosphorylation activates or deactivates many protein enzymes....
. Although he and his team were unable to establish the precise function of regulatory light chains in vertebrate skeletal and cardiac myosins, it laid the foundation for a whole new field of regulation of how phosphorylation regulates movement in smooth muscle and in non-muscle cells.
Rugby career
While a student at the University of Cambridge, Perry joined the university rugby union team. He played in two Varsity MatchesThe Varsity Match
The Varsity Match is an annual rugby union fixture played between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England. By tradition, the match is held on the second Tuesday of December. In 2005, however, this changed, and the match was on Tuesday 6 December. In 2007, it was held on a Thursday for...
in 1946 and 1947, and impressed enough to draw the attention of the RFU
Rugby Football Union
The Rugby Football Union was founded in 1871 as the governing body for the sport of rugby union, and performed as the international governing body prior to the formation of the International Rugby Board in 1886...
board of selectors. He was first capped for his country for the 1947 Five Nations Championship
1947 Five Nations Championship
The 1947 Five Nations Championship was the eighteenth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the fifty-third series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Ten matches were played between 1...
, in a match against Wales, the first match for England since 1939. Due to the passage of time between the start of the war and recommencement of games, only Dick Guest of England had any prior international experience. Despite Perry appearing in a completely uncapped pack, the forwards played brilliantly and an unfancied England won 9-6. Perry played in one more match of the 1947 tournament, an away game to Ireland, which England lost comprehensively.
Perry was next selected in early 1948 to face the touring Australia team. England lost the game 11–0, with the opposing locks dominating the line-out play. Although Perry had faced defeat with England, four weeks later he was selected to face the same Australian side as part of invitational team the Barbarians
Barbarian F.C.
The Barbarian Football Club, usually referred to as the Barbarians and nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", is an invitational rugby union team based in Britain...
, in their first match against overseas international opposition. Played at the Cardiff Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...
, the Barbarians won 9–6.
Despite the England loss to Australia, Perry was back in the squad for the 1948 Five Nations Championship
1948 Five Nations Championship
The 1948 Five Nations Championship was the nineteenth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the fifty-fourth series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Ten matches were played between...
, playing in all four encounters. It was a disaster of a campaign for England, drawing against Wales, and losing to Ireland, Scotland and France, and ending bottom of the league. Perry never represented his country further, deciding to concentrate on his academic career instead.
Personal life
Perry married Maureen Shaw, an actress and artist, in 1948. In 1959 they purchased a derelict watermill in West Wales, and renovated it over several years. They settled at the watermill permanently after his retirement. The couple had three children.He died on the 17 December 2009, survived by his wife and three children.