lBack to Synopsis I Scientists as Savilians Title 63 B

Until I read Anderson’s book, I never realised what an honour it was to belong to a Club which has had amongst its past members so many of England’s greatest sci- entists. A founder member in 1868 was Sir Norman Lockyer FRS, pioneer of astro- physics and remembered also as the founder of the London Science Museum and the Journal Nature, of which he remained the Editor until his death in 1920. His dis- cussions to start Nature with Alexander MacMillan, the publisher, took place at the Savile and Nature was published by the company of his name. In the 32 years between the Club’s foundation and 1900, no fewer than 168 Fel- lows of the Royal Society had been elected members of the Savile, including eight Presidents of the Royal Society. Here I can only give a brief list of famous scientists including Karl Pearson ERS, the founder of modern statistics, A.N. Whitehead FRS, with Lord Russell as co-author, of Principia rnathernatica, Sir Arthur Edding- ton FRS the astronomer and mathematician, and John Tyndall FRS of the Royal Institution, a successor to Faraday. Famous for psychiatric care was Dr Henry Maudsley FRCP, after whom the great Hospital for mental diseases in Dulwich, South London, was named in 1923. An- other famous Savilian was Sir William Thomson FRS, later Baron Kelvin, who dis- covered the second law of thermodynamics and whose initial ‘K’ has been given to the absolute temperature scale. Equally famous was Lord Rayleigh FRS, Nobel Laureate, the discoverer of inert gases, especially argon. Another early NobeLLau- reate and Member of the Savile was Sir Joseph John (J.J.) Thomson FRS, the dis- coverer of the electron. Perhaps the most distinguished scientist who was a member of the Savile, was Lord Rutherford, generally regarded as the founder of modern physics. He was also a Nobel Laureate and a President of the Royal Society.

I More recent-Fellows of the Royal Society who also received the Nobel Prize were Sir John Cockcroft who was the first to split an-atomin 1932. Later, when he was the Director of the Harwell Atomic Energy Research Station I applied there for a position as a scientific cinematographer and Sir John interviewed me at the Savile Club in 1955, but I was not appointed. I also met Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, a very spe- cial President of the Royal Society, as in 1960 he officiated at the Tercentenary Cel- ebrations of the Royal Society. He was also a Nobel Laureate, though not a fre-

I quent visitor of the Club. , 3 .. i During the last 40 years, when I was a member, and after the deaths of Cockcroft and Hinshelwood, no further famous scientists were elected members of the Savile Club. -1

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To... Discovery and the Savile Club - The Savile Club’s Motto - Sodalitas convivium. Title 63C

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