Schonland : Scientist and Soldier: From Lightning on the Veld to Nuclear Power at Harwell: the Life of Field Marshal Montgomery's Scientific Adviser

Content: Foreword / Sir Maurice Wilkes FREng FRS -- Early Years -- Rhodes to Cambridge -- For King and Country -- In Command -- From the Cavendish to Cape Town -- And Then There Was Lightning -- Enter Cockcroft -- The Wings Begin to Spread -- Two Chairs and the Bpi -- Bernard Price's Institute -- The SSS at War -- 'Could I be of Service?' -- Soldiers and Civilians -- Montgomery's Scientist -- When Smuts Called -- Nationalists and Internationalists -- 'Come over to Macedonia and Help Us' -- Cockcroft's Man -- Scientia Et Labore -- 'Cometh the Hour' -- Harwell -- Fission But No Fusion -- Zeta and Windscale -- Captain and Not First Officer -- 'For the Future Lies with You'. "Basil Schonland the physicist unravelled the mysteries of lightning. Schonland the soldier served as scientific advisor to two Generals, became Chancellor of his alma mater, and Superintendent of the Army Operational Research Group. Schonland the administrator was President of the CSIR and Director of Harwell. But who was this exceptional man?". "In this book Brian Austin has written not just a scientific biography, but a biography which tells much of a highly placed scientist and administrator, of the increasing engagement between science and the military, and of changing military and diplomatic relationships between Britain and South Africa. He has drawn on a profusion of primary and secondary source material, from both South African and British archives, to produce a fine and very readable biography."--BOOK JACKET. Annotation Schonland: Scientist and Soldier is a biography of Sir Basil Schonland FRS (1896-1972). Schonland was a major contributor to twentieth-century British and Commonwealth science, both in peace and war. This is not just a scientific biography, but a biography that tells much of a highly placed scientist and administrator, of the increasing engagement between science and the military, and of changing military-diplomatic relationships between Britain and South Africa. The author has drawn on a profusion of primary and secondary source material, from both South African and British archives, to produce a fine biography that is very readable and interesting Sir Basil Schonland was a major contributor to 20th century British and Commonwealth science. As well as detailing his life, this biography depicts the increasing engagement between science and the military, and of changing military/diplomatic relationships between Britain and South Africa In many ways the future of modern South Africa was determined by events in 1896, the year that Basil Schonland was born.