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Lorna Arnold Laudatio

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Lorna Arnold Laudatio 27 XI 09 LORNA ARNOLD LAUDATIO Mr Vice Chancellor, Apart from the personal pride and pleasure I take in presenting this candidate to you for an Honorary Doctorate, there are, I suggest three reasons why the University of Reading can share my personal excitement in our association with Lorna Arnold. Through her, we acknowledge the British government’s tradition of opening the doors to scholarship and research in even the most secret areas – here, nuclear weapons. This openness is so vital, not only to our work in Politics & International Relations but, more importantly, for democratic accountability. We recognise and celebrate conscientious and fair scholarship. This is particularly hard to achieve, I would suggest, in this sensitive area of research which Lorna Arnold has matched and even set highest standards of accuracy with fairness of analysis. In this, she serves as a model to all scholars. Through her, we honour the pioneering work of the British Atomic Energy Authority, particularly as carried out in Reading’s small suburb of Aldermaston; - and I am pleased to welcome our guests from the Authority who have joined us here today - Ms Mary Hills - Mr Andrew Hills, - and Mr Michael McTaggart. Turning to the honorary graduand herself: Lorna Rainbow, born in the First World War, was set to become a teacher of English literature when the Second World War came along and rocked her life. She was encouraged to join the War Office, as a civilian official, soon involved in the work of the Special Operations Executive. In 1944 she joined the Foreign Office, where she was probably the first female British diplomat. She was posted to Berlin, shortly after the German capitulation to work in the Allied Control Commission, where Britons, Americans, French and Soviets tried to work together to administer occupied Germany – and this, arguably, is where the Cold War started. As an eye-witness, Lorna has noteworthy personal observations on this subject. Transferred to the British Embassy in Washington, she was present at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in April 1949. She then returned to England upon marrying – and had to resign from the Diplomatic Service. Besides raising two sons – whom we have the pleasure to have with us today – she managed to get into new occupations, including work for the Family Planning Association, the British Institute of Management, the National Spastics Society, and a biscuit factory – albeit not Huntley & Palmer, I’m afraid! In 1959 she joined the British Atomic Energy Authority, where she worked initially on the Windscale Accident commission and then for the Historian's Office. Together with Margaret Gowing, she published a famous history of British nuclear energy from 1945-1952: Independence and Deterrence. Lorna Arnold was awarded an OBE in 1976. She continued to work primarily as a research assistant, until the retirement of Margaret Gowing. At that point, Lorna Arnold de facto took over the work of the official historian of the UKAEA, though herself well past the age of retirement. And this is the most stunning part: it is only now that she started to write articles and monographs of her own, including most notably a book on British atomic weapons trials in Australia, published when Lorna was 72, revised and re-edited as Britain, Australia and the Bomb; Windscale 1957: Anatomy of a Nuclear Accident (published when Lorna was 77) and Britain and the H-Bomb (published 2001 when Lorna was 86). There would be more if she had not lost her eyesight. But she is still co-authoring articles. These publications, in quality, quantity and frequency, would have made her a strong candidate for a Chair in a University! At an age where others would have been content to settle into retirement, Lorna slipped out of the cocoon of a researcher to unfold her wings as a leading scholar in her own right. This is the primary achievement that we honour today. Generous to a fault, always available to colleagues, journalists and students in need of advice, critical and fair in her comments to academics just as in her analysis of government politics, she has been wonderful to work with. I have every confidence that this would readily be confirmed by our guests, the former Vice Chancellor of this University, Professor Sir Roger Williams; Professor John Baylis, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Swansea; Professor Peter Henessy and Professor Brian Cathcart, Dr. Geoffrey Best and Dr. Ken Johnson, whom we welcome today and whose presence bears witness that Lorna Arnold has set standards of scholarship with which the University of Reading can only be proud to have an association.. Mr Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Lorna Arnold for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters of this University. .
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