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Characters in Rutherford's life

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William Henry Bragg 

(1862-1942)

   A young mathematician who graduated from Cambridge, WHB was appointed in 1886 to the other side of the world. He began his career in Adelaide, Australia, teaching both mathematics and applied physics. 

     In 1895, he was visited by a 24-year-old New Zealander on his way to England. He had no idea how their fates would be intertwined in so many ways in the following decades. 

Pictures:

  • Wiliam Henry Bragg between 1905 and 1910.

Source: University of Adelaide

   It was in 1904 that WHB heard from Ernest Rutherford again, but in an indirect way.

That year, during the annual conference of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science , WHB was to chair the section "Mathematics / Physics" .

   It was therefore up to him to deliver an opening speech in which, according to tradition, he would draw up a picture of the latest advances in science.

   However, when he had started in Adelaide, he had sought to familiarize himself with physics, (that he had to teach even if it was not in his field), but he had stuck to the basics, i.e. the most established (or, in other words, the oldest) notions. Above all, he had not embarked on the slightest research work : in the laboratory, he confined himself to practical work for his students or to a few tests (as with X-rays, the production of which was very easy).

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  In 1907, Ernest left Canada for Manchester . In 1909, it was Bragg's turn to get closer to the heart of science: Europe.

  Having demonstrated his talents as a physicist and as an experimenter, he obtained the chair of physics at the University of Leeds.

  It is interesting to mention that he had almost been nominated to another position two years earlier: Ernest had indeed proposed his name to replace him at McGill University in Montreal. But as a blaze destroyed two buildings on the campus, the board of directors decided to redirect its spending: rather than the stipend of high-level professor, it was better to finance the reconstruction. And to replace Rutherford by offering a promotion to one of his assistants (less well paid) without additional recruitment.

  The preparations for the Australian Association colloquium radically changed the situation... for the scientific papers he read to prepare his speech titillated his curiosity. These papers were signed Marie Curie or Ernest Rutherford and made him want to observe for himself the behavior of the particles emitted by radiating bodies.

   This is how he took his part in the small group of researchers who, in several places around the world, were trying to unravel the secrets of radioactivity. He then resumed contact with Rutherford ; told him his findings ; which Rutherford found very relevant, rigorous and useful. A real partnership began between Adelaide and Montreal .

W.H. Bragg, Gwendoline Bragg, William La
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Pictures :

  • Great Hall, University of Leeds. Source: Wikipedia .

  • Robert Charles Bragg in 1915. Source: Virtual War Memorial Australia .

  • Facade of the Royal Institution in London. Source: RIGB .

  • Alban and Gwendy Caroe on their wedding day at the Royal Institution in 1932. Source: RIGB .

  • William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg in the 1930s - Source: Smithsonian Institution Archives , SIA Acc. 90-105 [SIA2007-0340]

Video : WHB in 1931 at the Royal Institution, explaining electromagnetism, for the centenary of the discovery of this phenomenon by Faraday. Source: RIGB archives .

    Between the sun of Adelaide and the chilling mists of Leeds the contrast was stark for the Bragg family (especially Gwendoline and her two sons who were all three born in South Australia; undoubtedly less for the youngest of the family, Gwendolyn ( known as Gwendy), who was only two years old).

   As for WHB, another reason for frustration increased his difficulties of adaptation: he who was the only master on board in his Australian physics department found himself no more than a pawn in a heavy and outdated machine such as an English university.

   In these conditions, the closeness of Ernest Rutherford was a real comfort. And the partnership started across the oceans turned into a real friendship. Whenever he could, WHB would invite Ernest to Leeds or visit him in Manchester. They even spent three weeks of vacation together in 1912, in Carcassonne and in the Pyrenees.

   Despite his initial difficulties, William Henry Bragg's career in England confirmed his talents as a researcher. He would start studying the diffraction of X-rays by crystals and that would earn him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915, shared with his eldest son, William Lawrence .

    Alas, in September of the same year, his second son, Robert, was killed in Gallipoli. Strongly overwhelmed, WHB did not go to Stockholm to receive his prize: he could not bear to be in the same room as German personalities.

   The Royal Institution in London keeps letters that Robert Bragg wrote to his mother, Gwendoline , during the operations in which he was engaged in 1914-1915. The last were written in Gallipoli, in August 1915.

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A few weeks earlier, William Bragg had been appointed to the group of experts of the Board of Invention and Research, alongside Ernest Rutherford. Both were integrated into section 2, responsible in particular for studying submarine detection systems. Rutherford began experiments in his Manchester laboratory, which he continued with sea trials at the Hawkcraig experimental station, Scotland. This site, equipped in a very rudimentary manner, was placed under the responsibility of a naval officer,  which did not make things go easily for the assistants that Rutherford had sent there. Finally, in May 1916, William Bragg took over as director of research at Hawkcraig. 

In December 1916, William and his assistants of the BIR moved to a new research center in Harwich, north-east London.

In 1915, William Henry Bragg experienced another big change as he left Leeds following his appointment to the University College London. He taught physics there until 1923, the year during which he became Professor of Chemistry and director of the research laboratory of the Royal Institution.

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In 1929, Gwendoline, wife of William Henry, died at the age of 60. His daughter, Gwendolen (known as Gwendy), aged only 22 and who spent all her adolescence within the walls of the Royal Institution, then took over the role her mother had assumed until then within this establishment; a discreet but indispensable role in ensuring the smooth running of the " Friday evening lectures", scientific presentations open to the public (Rutherford gave a few, see here ).

In this regard, I would like to point out that among the various sources that I used for my novel is a text written by Gwendy Caroe née Bragg (see below).

     In fact, it was in the same place that Gwendy married in 1932. This was quite normal, since it was the residence where she lived with her father. She stayed there with her husband until 1942, the year of William Henry Bragg's death.

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   Finally, I will just mention that from 1935 to 1940, WHB will be president of the Royal Society (counting among his predecessors in this function Lord Kelvin, JJ Thomson or even Ernest Rutherford).

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   A fine path for the mathematician who had improvised himself as a physics professor on the other side of the world, without suspecting the success he would achieve in this field - and even less the trials that life had in store for him.

Alban and Gwendy Caroe on their wedding
William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence

Sources:

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