NATIONAL LIFE STORIES AN ORAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SCIENCE Professor Julia Slingo Interviewed by Dr Paul Merchant C1379/61 IMPORTANT Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, however no transcript is an exact translation of the spoken word, and this document is intended to be a guide to the original recording, not replace it. Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB 020 7412 7404 [email protected] The British Library National Life Stories Interview Summary Sheet Title Page Ref no: C1379/61 Collection title: An Oral History of British Science Interviewee’s Slingo Title: Professor surname: Interviewee’s Julia Sex: Female forename: Occupation: research Date and place of 13/12/1950, meteorologist/climate birth: Kenilworth, modeller Warwickshire Mother’s occupation: Teacher Father’s occupation: Head Teacher Dates of recording, Compact flash cards used, tracks (from – to): 2/11/11 (track 1-2), 19/1/12 (track 3), 20/4/12 (track 4-6) Location of interview: Interviewee’s home, British Library and Meteorological Office, Exeter Name of interviewer: Dr Paul Merchant Type of recorder: Marantz PMD661 Recording format : 661: WAV 24 bit 48kHz Total no. of tracks: 6 Mono or stereo: Stereo Total Duration: 8:19:32 Additional material: Copyright/Clearance: © The British Library Interviewer’s comments: Julie Slingo Page 1 C1379/61 Track 1 Track 1 Could I start today by asking when and where you were born? I was born on 13th December 1950 in Kenilworth in Warwickshire. And anything you know of your mother’s life based on what you happen to know of it, from she told you, but also anything you might have found out subsequently. Well she was born into a working class family, her father was a chauffeur in Warwickshire. And she was – she turned out to be a very clever girl, and won a scholarship to the local grammar school in Warwick, and then went on to Westfield College in London, part of the University of London, to read mathematics. And subsequently taught mathematics until she became a wife and mother. And what did you know of her father? That he lived with us for many years after he was widowed, and he was from country stock, so he was very good with his hands, very simple chap, he was a chauffeur that was his – how he earned his living, and living in a tied cottage as part of the estate, just as people did in those days. What do you know of his childhood, did he tell you stories of his childhood or did you learn of those? He was one of a very large family, again from a rural background, so there probably I think about eleven children in the family, all living in a small cottage in a rural setting. He was in the First World War, he was a soldier, but he never talked about it. [01:47] And your mother’s mother, what do you know of her life? Julie Slingo Page 2 C1379/61 Track 1 She came from a similar background, again from Worcestershire, and in her case we can trace the family right back until the 17th century. And again they were rural farming folk whose fortunes waxed and waned with the years. So at some stages her ancestors were clearly quite well to do, and at other times they were obviously very strapped, and living in quite poor conditions in rural Worcestershire. [02:26] And what can you tell me about your father’s life? So in some ways quite similar to my mother’s in the sense that he too came from a working class family, so he was born in Batley up in Yorkshire. And again his father was an engineer in the local engineering works, but obviously quite skilled, because we have examples where he went over to Ireland to help install new machinery, and things like that. So he was obviously quite skilled, and again my father, a clever young man, and so went again to the local grammar school, and then won a scholarship to Nottingham University where he read German. And he spent quite a bit of his late teenage years, early twenties in Germany, so with the rise of Nazism actually in the early ‘30s. And then he went on to teach German in a school in Nottingham, which is where he met my mother who came into teach mathematics. [03:51] Before we lose the thread, could you tell me about his mother, your paternal grandmother? I know very little about them, both of his parents had died long before I was born, so – and both my parents died when I was in my twenties, so those – the knowledge we have of him is very – and his family are very limited now. What memories do you have as a child spending time with your maternal grandparents, the ones that you did know, particular things done with them, places went, even conversations had, if you can remember? Julie Slingo Page 3 C1379/61 Track 1 Well my maternal grandmother died when I was only two, so all I have is photographs of her with me, and my grandfather then came to live with us for about another thirteen years before he died. And he was a very simple chap, so he did the gardening, and he took us out for walks, and he made things for us. But he liked very simple things, he liked the boxing on the radio, things like that. What did he make for you? I don’t know what he made of all of us really, because I had two brothers, and we were all quite clever, and doing all sorts of interesting things. He probably found us – and I think actually he probably found us quite difficult to relate to. My parents ended up being not well off, but comfortably off, because my father was a headmaster of the big school in Coventry, King Henry the Eighth in Coventry, and had risen up quite high in the education system in the UK. So he probably found us as a family maybe quite difficult to relate to I suppose, now I think back to it. And do you remember what – you said that he made you things? He was very good with his hands, so there would be little trucks and things to ride around with, and certainly he would have taught my older brother quite a bit of woodwork, and those sorts of things. He was very good in the garden, with gardening, and we had a lovely garden and things like that, until he became very elderly, and then he just sat in the chair by the fire. Did he have other key roles in the household, aside from the garden, and making things, and listening to the radio in the chair? Did he have other – Not particularly. Not that I recall anyway. [06:31] I don’t know, you may have had more than one childhood home that you can remember, but is there one that you could take us on a tour of, the first one that you can remember? Julie Slingo Page 4 C1379/61 Track 1 Well we only had really one childhood home, which was in Coventry, and I was born very soon after my father came back from Germany. He had a very interesting history of involvement in the redevelopment of Germany post-war, so because he was a German speaker he was trained before the end of the war to go in almost immediately and try and restore the schools and the universities, you know, in Germany. And he spent four years out there with my mother basically building up, introducing free school milk. The children had no shoes, no food, free school dinners, reinstating the university at Kiel, and things like that. So very important job post-war Germany, and a lot of interesting history there actually of his own personal experiences in literally post-war Germany within a few weeks of the fall of the – Before I ask you about these memories, when did he tell you about them? When did you – when did they become transferred to you, if you like, these stories? All through my childhood because he – when he became headmaster in Coventry he also became very well connected with Coventry Cathedral, which was as you know ruined and rebuilt. And he was very closely involved in the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral, and the very close links that Coventry then built with Dresden. So as a German speaker he would often go out with the Bishop to build the relationships with Dresden and Coventry. And so as part of all of that, because he would talk about that, he would also get out some of letters that he’d written to my mother, and to his sister, of when he first went into Berlin, and his experiences around going into Hitler’s bunker where all the –just as it was when they found it. He had a few bits and pieces that he brought home, a letter he’d written on Hitler’s personal notepaper and things like that. And the old – the videos, the films that were shown in German schools before the war, and during the war, to promote Nazism, so the Olympics, and film of the Olympics and all those sorts of things. Did he recover, did he bring those back? We have those, yes.