Nobel Prize winner Paul Nurse's shocking family discovery

Born above a shop in Norwich’s Tuckswood estate, he went on to become one of world’s most eminent scientists.  

He will be back in Norwich on January 26 to give a talk called ‘What is life?’ 

It will include a sprint through cell division and natural selection but it won’t include the world-renowned geneticist’s own remarkable genetic backstory. 

Sir Paul was 57 before he discovered his mother was the woman he had always thought was his older sister.  

He was working in the United States, and president of the Rockefeller University in New York, when he needed to provide his full birth certificate, rather than the summary certificate he had previously relied on. It showed that the couple who brought him up were really his grandparents.  

His actual mother, their daughter, was just 18 when he was born. He always had a close bond with her – but both she and her parents were dead by the time he discovered their real relationship.  

Since then he has pieced the story of his birth together. His grandparents, who brought him up, were from Kelling Heath, near Holt, where they worked as a cook and a chauffeur. They too had both been born out of wedlock, his grandmother in the Poor House, which Sir Paul believes might explain why they were desperate to hide what was then seen as the shame of illegitimacy.  

By then the family had moved to London where his grandfather found work in a factory and the couple brought up their three children. But when their unmarried, daughter fell pregnant, she and her mother returned to Norfolk and stayed with an aunt and uncle in Tuckswood, Norwich, until the baby was born. “Her uncle was blinded in the war and set up in a tobacconist’s shop. I think I was born above the shop,” said Sir Paul. 

“After I was born – a good Norfolk boy – I was brought back to London and presented as my grandmother’s child.”  

The family kept the secret for the rest of their lives.  

His actual mother went on to marry and have three more children, dying aged 70 of multiple sclerosis. Sir Paul remembers her always having four photographs by her bed – three of the children everyone knew about. The other was Paul. 

“I don’t think my mother ever told her husband that I was her son too,” he said. 

When Sir Paul first saw his full birth certificate he thought there must have been a mistake. “After I realised it was true I thought it couldn’t be more absurd. Here I am, quite a famous geneticist, in my 50s, discovering that I know nothing about my own genetics! 

“I haven’t been able to find out anything about my biological father. I know that I have unknown relatives in England and I tried to contact them but they didn’t reply so I haven’t pursued it.” 

Sir Paul and his wife Anne, who was a primary school teacher in Thetford, have two grown-up daughters and four grandchildren and regularly return to Norfolk, where Paul particularly loves Norwich Cathedral.  

His mother must have watched in silent amazement and pride as her secret son, the scientist, began unravelling some of the mysteries of human life. 

“Growing up I did feel there was something a bit different about me because I was the only one who stayed on at school after the age of 15,” said Sir Paul. “I was much more academic and as a consequence of that I did wonder why. 

“I was a child driven by a relentless curiosity. I always wanted to know how everything worked.”  

Sir Paul returned to Norfolk throughout his childhood to visit relatives and studied for his doctorate at the University of East Anglia. It was here that he began his work with yeast cells which led to the discovery of the mechanism which controls the division of all cells, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 2001, alongside two other scientists.  

The discovery revolutionised medical, genetic and agricultural research. It helped reveal how cancer cells spread and Sir Paul became director general of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, later Cancer Research UK. He is currently chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute, the biggest biomedical institute in Europe and, aged, 73, is still a working scientist too.   

“I’m still a researcher. It’s a bit unusual for someone of my age,” he said. “I’m still researching the details of how everything works which is really, really interesting. I would like to see if I can sort it out before I finally retire. I need to know how it all works.” 

What is life?

Sir Paul will be back in Norwich on January 26 to give a talk as part of a public lecture series organised by the Norfolk Cambridge Society.   

What is Life? Is the title of his lecture and his latest book, which was described by Bill Bryson as ‘a nearly perfect guide to the wonder and complexity of existence.’ 

“It is probably the most important question in biology,” said Sir Paul. “What distinguishes something living from something that isn’t living is really what biology is all about.” 

He will talk about scientists who made some of the most important discoveries in biology as well as sharing his own challenges, lucky breaks, and eureka moments. 

Geoffrey Smart, chairman of the Norfolk Cambridge Society, for graduates of Cambridge University living in Norfolk, called Sir Paul ‘Norfolk's most celebrated living son,’ and said: “This really is a person all Norfolk should be proud of!” 

Geoffrey launched the public lectures in 2018 after becoming dismayed by public discourse around the world descending into what he called ‘exchanges of misinformation and disinformation.’ He hopes sixth form students will be particularly interested in Sir Paul’s lecture. 

They will hear him identify the principles which underlie all living things and talk about how they all have the ability to evolve by natural selection and are all related and interconnected. 

What is Life? by Sir Paul Nurse, is at the Blake Studio, Norwich School, in the Cathedral Close, on January 26 at 5.30pm. Tickets are £12 before the end of November and then £15,  £10 for senior citizens and £5 for sixth formers and accompanying teachers, from norfolkcambridgesociety.org.uk