Sir William Bragg, F. R. S. (1862-1942)

Abstract

William Henry Bragg was bom at Westward near Wigton in Cumberland on 2 July 1862, and died at the Royal Institution on 10 March, 1942, in his 80th year. The obituary notice was written for the Royal Society by Professor Andrade, and we have always felt grateful to him for its sympathy and insight. It covers the main events of his career. We feel that our contribution now can best be some account of a more personal kind and the memories we have of him . Some fifteen years before he died he wrote for his family a biographical note which covers the period from his earliest memories up to his going to Australia in 1886. It is interesting to give some details of the family history, because his early upbringing explains so much of his later outlook on life. He came from a Cumberland family whose members were yeoman farmers or in the merchant navy; there were no academic traditions of any kind. His grandfather was drowned in 1839 when his ship was lost in the Irish Sea, and the widow and four children were left badly off. The eldest boy was only twelve at the time, but he seems to have taken on his shoulders the main burden of supporting and bringing up the young family. He was apprenticed to a chemist and later set up his own chemist and grocer’s shop in Market Harborough, where he did well and acquired a position of influence in the town. The second boy, Robert John Bragg, went to sea like his father, but coming into some money at the age of 25 he retired and bought a farm in Cumberland. He married the daughter of the vicar and our father was their eldest child.