Home

Plaques awarded,
with biographies

Who qualifies?

Making a proposal

Funding & Ceremonies

Oxfordshire Blue
Plaques Board

---

New plaques in 2026:

• Beatrice Blackwood

• Baroness Lucy Faithfull

• Revd Dr John Allen
     Giles

• Mary Sophia Merivale

 

Anthony Epstein was a groundbreaking virologist, the first to discover that a virus could cause cancer in humans, a milestone in the history of medicine.

He was born in London to Mortimer and Olga (née Oppenheimer) Epstein. His father was a writer and translator, and his mother was involved in charity work. Educated at St Paul’s School, he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge and then the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. In 1945 he was enlisted to the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) as a War Emergency Commission and spent two years in India. He returned to the Middlesex in 1948 and began work there as a pathologist researching a highly unusual virus that could induce cancer in chickens.

In 1961 he attended a lecture by Denis Burkitt about a new cancer seen in African children, (subsequently named Burkitt’s lymphoma) and suspected that it could be caused by a virus. After two years of intensive research and an element of serendipity, he identified a new herpes virus as the culprit. He was aided by Dr Bert Achong, his assistant, and Yvonne Barr, graduate researcher. Their joint paper was published in 1964 in the Lancet. The virus was named Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). There was now the prospect that a vaccine could be created to prevent this lymphoma and other tumours that were subsequently linked to the virus. His life-long research was devoted to developing such a vaccine, an ambition which is now on the cusp of being realised. From 1968 to 1985 he was Professor of Pathology at Bristol University and from 1986 to 2001 Extraordinary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, then Honorary Fellow until his death at the age of 102.

He was made FRS in 1979, appointed CBE in 1985, and then knighted for services to medicine in 1991. He received much international recognition, including the Bristol Myers Award for Cancer Research (USA), the Prix Grifuel (France), the Gairdner International Award (Canada), the Royal Society’s Royal Medal, the Gold Medal from Charles University, Prague. He served as Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Society and as special representative of the director general of UNESCO.

He moved to 19 West Street on Osney Island when he retired in 1986, and remained there until his death in 2024.

Sources: Guardian obituary (Georgina Ferry) and other national obituaries;
family information; Wikipedia and other online websites.

The plaque was unveiled at 19 West Street, Osney Island, Oxford (right) on 2 November 2024.

The speaker was Alan Rickinson, Professor Emeritus of Cancer Studies at Birmingham University and former colleague. Among those attending were the Lord Mayor of Oxford (Mike Rowley), the Chair of Oxfordshire County Council (Cllr Alison Rooke), the Chair of West Oxfordshire District Council (Elizabeth Poskitt), Epstein’s long-term partner Professor Kate Ward and family members, the President of Wolfson College (Sir Tim Hitchens), Cllr Susanna Pressel, and residents of Osney Island.

• Group photograph
  Back row: Susanna Pressel and Sir Tim Hitchens; Front row: Alison Rooke, Mike Rowley, Elizabeth Poskitt, Kate Ward, and Epstein’s daughter Susan Holmes and grandson Ben Holmes
• The plaque unveiled
  by Sir Anthony’s grandson, Ben Holmes
• The speaker
  Professor Alan Rickinson with the Chairman of the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board (Professor Robert Evans)