| Authorised form of name | Cockcroft; Sir; John Douglas (1897 - 1967); physicist |
| Dates | 1897 - 1967 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Todmorden, Yorkshire, England |
| Date of birth | 27 May 1897 |
| Place of death | Cambridge, Cambridgeshire |
| Date of death | 18/09/1967 |
| Dates and places | Burial:
St Giles' cemetery, now Ascension Cemetery, Cambridge |
| Research field | Physics |
| Electrical engineering |
| Activity | Career:
A Signaller in First World War. Apprenticed with Metropolitan Vickers, while he attained a Manster of Science in Technology, before going to St John's College in Cambridge where he took the mathematics tripos in 1924. At the Cavendish Laboratory under Sir Ernest Rutherford, with E T S Watson developed the high voltage particle accelerator machine which brought him fame. Assisted with he development of radar in the Second World War. From 1943 involved with the development of the atomic bomb, and went to Canada to direct a British, Canadian and French team. After the war became Director of Harwell, Britain's peacetime atomic energy research programme. First reactor for producing nuclear energy for the national grid opened at Calder Hall in 1953.
Medals and prizes:
Nobel Prize (Physics) 1951
Honours:
CBE 1944; Kt 1948; KCB 1953; OM 1957 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 07/05/1936 |
| Royal Society activity | Medals and prizes:
Hughes Medal 1938; Royal Medal 1954
Lectures:
Rutherford 1952 |
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DSB
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1968 vol 14 pp 139-188, plate, by M L E Oliphant and Penney
References:
Robert Spence, 'Address at the Service of Memorial and Thanksgiving for Sir John Cockcroft, OM, KCB, FRS at Westminster Abbey on 17 October 1967' in NR 1968 vol 23 pp 31-32
J B Adams, 'Four Generations of Nuclear Physicists' in NR 1972-3 vol 27 pp 75-94
Sir Harrie Massey, 'Nuclear Physics Today and in Rutherford's Day' in NR 1972-3 vol 27 pp 25-44
W E Burcham, 'The Cavendish High-Voltage Laboratory 1935-39' in NR 1999 vol 53 pp 121-134
F R N Nabarro, 'A scientist of the Commonwealth. Schonland, scientist and soldier, by B Austin' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 396-398
J S Rowlinson, 'The war time work of Hinshelwood and his colleagues' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 161-175
Notes:
Appears in DSB under Cockroft, also in R. Source for death date BM 18, p145 and DSB. Index to BR gives 17 Sep 1967. |
| Royal Society code | NA8174 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| PB/1/33/1/2 | Nobel Prize | 1948 |
| PB/7/1/2/5 | Correspondence with Sir John Cockcroft and General Begeron on Solar Energy | 1951 |
| PB/8/10/4 | Correspondence with scientific colleagues, with recollections and information on Evan James Williams's work and personality. | 1945-1946 |
| PB/4/8/9 | Correspondence with Sir John Cockcroft | 1942 |
| TG/1/2/11 | Letter from Thomas Gold to Sir John Cockcroft, The Master's Lodge, Churchill College, Cambridge | 1 July 1964 |
| PB/8/44 | 'Speech of thanks to J.D.C. [Sir John Cockcroft] at Opening Ceremony of Physics Building, 20.10.60.' [at Imperial College, London]. | 1960 |
| MM/18/1 | Letter from JD Cockcroft to Francis Parry Burch | 28 May 1932 |
| PB/9/1/26 | Correspondence with Sir John Cockcroft | 1939, 1964-1966 |
| PB/4/1/4 | Correspondence, mainly with Sir John Cockcroft, on personnel for teams for coastal defence radar chains | July-September 1939 |
| IM/GA/WS/2462 | Cockcroft, Sir John Douglas | nd |
| IM/GA/WRS/8717 | Cockcroft, Sir John Douglas | nd |
| PB/6/2/4/2 | Folder inscribed 'Royal Society Evidence to Trend Committee' | 1962 |
| WF/95 | Grant application from Churchill College, Cambridge to the Wolfson Foundation | 1963-1966 |
| RR/65/67 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'The transfer effect in liquid He II. I. The transfer phenomena & II. Properties of the transfer film' by J G Daunt and K Mendelssohn | 5 January 1939 |
| RR/66/228 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'On the atomic heat of liquid helium below 1°K' by G L Pickard and F Simon | [February 1939] |
| RR/65/237 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'The magnetic properties of bismuth, III. Further measurements on the de Haas-van Alphen effect' by David Shoenberg | November 1938 |
| RR/55/91 | Referee's report by Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, on a paper 'Experiments with high velocity positive ions VI—The disintegration of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen by deuterons' by John Douglas Cockcroft and Wilfrid Bennett Lewis | January 1936 |
| RR/66/336 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'The scattering of mesotrons in metal plates' by J G Wilson | [October 1939] |
| RR/65/49 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'Experiments on the transmutation of fluorine by protons and deutrones' by William Ernest Burcham and C L Smith | December 1938 |
| RR/65/178 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'The low-temperature properties of gaseous helium' by Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey and R A Buckingham | 16 July 1938 |
| RR/66/4 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'The electrical conductivity of thin films of mercury' by E T S Appleyard and J R Bristow | 19 June 1939 |
| RR/65/148 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'The Zeeman and Paschen-back effects in strong magnetic mields' by Piotr Leonidovich Kapitza, P G Strelkov and E Laurman | February 1938 |
| RR/66/330 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'K-electron capture, nuclear isomerism and the longperiod activities of titanium and scandium' by H Walke, Evan James Williams and G R Evans | 11 March 1939 |
| PB/8/18/6/1 | Blackett's correspondence with colleagues and friends re text or opinions of 'Military and political consequences of atomic energy' | 1948-1949 |
| PB/1/33/3/1 | Companion of Honour | 1965 |
| RR/66/3 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'Superconductivity of thin films. I. Mercury' by E T S Appleyard, J R Bristow, Heinz London and A D Misener | [June 1939] |
| WF/253 | Grant applications from Rothamsted Experimental Station to the Wolfson Foundation | 1964-2007 |
| WF/6 | Grant application from the University of Oxford to the Wolfson Foundation for Chair in Metallurgy | 1957-2007 |
| WF/87 | Grant application from University of Cambridge to the Wolfson Foundation | 1964-1965 |
| WF/288 | Grant application from University of Edinburgh to the Wolfson Foundation | 1964-1971 |
| EC/1936/02 | Cockcroft, Sir John Douglas: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| PB/1/33/2 | Correspondence concerning the Copley Medal of the Royal Society | 1956 |
| WF/252 | Grant application from St Hugh's College, Oxford, to the Wolfson Foundation | 1960-2005 |
| WF/96 | Grant application from Churchill College, Cambridge to the Wolfson Foundation | 1958-1965 |
| IM/002476 | Kapitza, Piotr Leonidovich | 4 May 1966 |
| WF/305 | Grant applications from Weizmann Institute of Science to the Wolfson Foundation | 1961 - 1983 |
| RR/61/91 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'Experiments on iron ammonium alum in alternating fields at very low temperatures' by A H Cooke and R A Hull | July 1937 |
| WF/198 | Grant application from University of Cambridge to the Wolfson Foundation | 1965-1973 |
| RR/55/92 | Referee's report by Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, on a paper 'Experiments with high velocity positive ions V—Further experiments on the disintegration of boron' by John Douglas Cockcroft and Wilfrid Bennett Lewis | January 1936 |
| RR/60/4 | Referee's report by John Douglas Cockcroft, on a paper 'Distribution of magnetic field around simply and multiply connected supraconductors' by H Grayson Smith and J O Wilhelm | 20 June 1936 |
| IM/000904 | Cockcroft, Sir John Douglas | nd |