He was born in 1911 the son of
John William Heslop-Harrison and his wife, Christian Watson Henderson. His younger brother was
Jack Heslop-Harrison. George studied at
Durham University graduating BSc in 1932. He received a doctorate (PhD) in 1934. In 1934/35 he accompanied his father on trips to the Scottish islands including
Canna,
Raasay and
Eigg. It is not clear if he also accompanied him on the controversial trip to Rum, which escalated into a scandal in the botanical world, when his father claimed evidence of various grass species, evidencing that the island had escaped the Ice Age. In 1936 he became director of Plant Pathology and Entomology in Iraq. In the
Second World War he was conscripted and at first was in service in Egypt. However, through connections he was transferred to India where he obtained the very odd rank of Captain Entomologist. After the war he returned to Britain as a lecturer in Agricultural Zoology at Newcastle and was in this role for the rest of his life. In 1947 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
Alfred Hobson,
Robert Wheldon, his father
John William Heslop-Harrison and
Meirion Thomas. Durham University awarded him a further honorary doctorate (DSc) in 1961. ==Personal life==