George Hugh Henderson 1892-1949

Abstract

George Hugh Henderson was a man with many highly developed interests and so will be remembered in many circles. In the world of physics his name will always be associated with alpha-particles and their effects, and in particular with the reading of the record left by them through geological time in the pleochroic haloes in mica. He was born into a family of pure Highland Scottish descent which had been resident in Nova Scotia for four or five generations. His ancestors were farmers, sea captains and builders. He happened, however, to be born at St Augustine, Florida, U.S.A., on 8 December 1892, where his parents had moved for the sake of his mother’s health. He was the only child of John Alexander and Margaret Henderson of Pictou, Nova Scotia. His mother was the daughter of Captain Dan MacDonald of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The MacDonald forbears were also Highland Scottish and the family had been resident in Nova Scotia for four or five generations. His parents returned to live in Nova Scotia but his mother died when he was two, and his father, the secretary of a railway company, was by misfortune drowned the next year. So, at the age of three, he was taken by his paternal grandparents to their home at Pictou. He has recorded that he ‘was constantly with his grandfather, a carpenter and contractor and early learned the use of tools’.