Sir
John Cockcroft (27th May 1897 to 18th September 1967.)
This plaque is near my house in
Todmorden. It must be a new/refurbished blue plaque as I hadn’t noticed it
before (my eyes fall on blue plaques like tramp’s eyes fall on 50pence coins.) A bright brainy boy was born here. He ended up sharing the
Nobel Prize for splitting the atomic nucleus.
He was the son of a mill owner and went
to the local secondary school ((where his physics teacher taught another future
Nobel Prize-winner, Geoffrey Wilkinson). After going to Manchester University
he was a signaller in the Royal Artillery from 1915 to 1918. After the war he
studied electrotechnical engineering and went on to study for maths degree at
St. John's College, Cambridge. I won’t go into his achievements as I’m quite
thick and don’t understand what he did…but here’s the link if you want to know
more:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cockcroft
It all started in this little terraced
house. He was so bright that today five buildings in the United Kingdom are
named after him. Cockcroft was married and had six children. He’s buried at the
Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge with his wife and son who
died aged two (see last photo.)
This chap with a brain the size of a Mini
Cooper died within days of my being born.
