Abstract
SIR BEN LOCKSPEISER who succeeds Sir Edward Appleton as secretary of the department of Scientific and Industrial Research, was born in 1891. He was educated at the Grocers' School, London, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He served in the First World War, taking part in the Gallipoli Campaign. Invalided home, he worked under Prof. A. V. Hill on problems relating to fuses. His association with aeronautics started in 1920, when he went to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. He was at first engaged in research on crystal structures with Dr. A. A. Griffith ; later he worked on aerodynamics and instrument design. He made valuable contributions to the theory of aircraft flutter and to the development of a chemical method of de-icing. He was placed in charge of the Air Defence Section at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1937, and it was perhaps in this that his best work, most of it secret, was done. He was transferred to the Ministry of Aircraft Production to take charge of armament research, being made assistant director in 1939 and deputy director in 1941 ; he became director of scientific research in succession to Dr. D. R. Pye in 1943, and director general in 1945. When the Ministry of Supply took over the responsibilities of the Ministry of Aircraft Production for aircraft, the need for a man of science to co-ordinate the scientific investigations of the whole Ministry was apparent, and Sir Ben was appointed as chief scientist to take over this work. Throughout his career Sir Ben has taken a strong interest in the status of scientific workers in the Civil Service ; much of the improvement in conditions of service that has been achieved is due to his untiring efforts.
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Sir Ben Lockspeiser. Nature 163, 314 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163314c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163314c0