“You, Sir Frederick, Will be Chairman: Military Research and the NRC (1937-1941)”

Grant Maltman, Curator of Banting House National Historic Site of Canada, is a graduate from The University of Western Ontario with more than 30-year experience in the cultural resource management and heritage presentation field. His journey started at the local Banting Secondary School when, as a student, he presented the Canadian Diabetes Association with a cheque from the student body for the development of the Banting House Museum. Ten years later he became the museum’s first paid employee and has served as the curator of Banting House National Historic Site of Canada for the last 28 years. In addition to securing the designation of Banting House as a national historic site of Canada, he consulted for the Royal Canadian Mint’s coin commemorating Banting as Canada’s first Nobel Prize recipient and the CBC production, The Greatest Canadian Contest. He is also a published author and recipient of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (London Branch)/Heritage London Foundation Built Heritage Award for the restoration of Banting House. He currently serves on the board of the National Historic Sites Alliance.

Grant enjoys sharing stories on the life and career of Sir Frederick Banting, introducing Canadians to “the man they think they know” and is currently focused on the commemorating the centenary of the discovery of insulin. This production makes no exception, so Grant will introduce us to a less known aspect of Banting’s personality – his role as a citizen when it mattered most, and that is the Second World War. “You, Sir Frederick, Will be Chairman: Military Research and the NRC 1937-1941” will highlight what has not been as effectively communicated about the discoverer of insulin: his role in mobilizing Canada, scientifically, for the War.

Major Sir Frederick Banting’s involvement began with an invitation to join the National Research Council in 1937 to stimulate peacetime research in Canada and ended with his death on a secret mission to England in 1941. While his tenure was brief, Banting's influence through his involvement with two National Research Council Associate Committees - Medical Research, and later Aviation Medicine, served as a catalyst for several military research projects, some controversial. His reputation opened doors and solicited financial support from Canadians and Government that affected the evolution of Canada’s biological warfare program and military aviation projects. These included Canada’s first human centrifuge, second decompression chamber, and the development of the Franks Flying Suit.