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Authorised form of nameHopkinson; Bertram (1874 - 1918)
Dates1874 - 1918
Place of birthBirmingham
Date of birth11 January 1874
Date of death26/08/1918
Dates and placesBurial: St Giles Cemetery Cambridge after a military funeral on 30 August 1918
OccupationExperimental Physicist
ActivityEducation:
St. Paul's, London; Trinity College, Cambridge 1893-6 (MA Mathematics).
King's College London and/or King's College London Hospital
B.Sc (1894) Experimental Physics
Career:
Appointed professor of mechanism and applied mechanics in Cambridge, in charge of the department of mechanical ~science (later engineering). His work was in metal stress, alloys, magnetism, explosion in gases and the internal combustion engine.
Royal Air Force Flying Corps, November 1915
Tribute from Sir Alfred Ewing, Principal of Edinburgh University, to The Times, 12 September 1918 to the scientific work of the late Colonel Bertram Hopkinson, C.M.G., F.R.S.. He says :- “It is indeed a tragedy in this regard that he should have been taken at the very summit of his powers, and at the moment when they were so fully engaged in serving the nation’s urgent need. His genius for applied science was hereditary. He had the same faculty as gave his father an honoured place in the history of electrical engineering, the same rare combination of mastery of theory and scientific method with appreciation of practical requirements and possibilities. It was this that enabled him to be conspicuously successful as Professor of Applied Mechanics at Cambridge: and it was this that made the value of his war work almost unique. It chanced that his own researches before the war, and those of students working under him in the Cambridge laboratory, formed in some degree a preparation for what was to come. They dealt with the processes and results of explosions, with the action of internal-combustion engines, and with the fatigue of materials under incipient overstrain. They were of high interest in themselves and in their bearing on matters of engineering practice. But to Hopkinson they were more: one may say they constituted and apprenticeship for the great work of his life, which was the work of the past four years. Of what he has accomplished in these years, for the Admiralty, and especially for the Air Force, it is not now permissible to speak. This, however, may be said, that the war gave him such an opportunity as he had never had before, and into it he threw all his inventiveness, all his initiative, his untiring energy, his power of organisation, his unrivalled capacity for getting the best out of himself and out of others. No worker rejoiced more in his work, nor accepted its call with more absolute self-renunciation. He was amazingly aloof from any consideration of personal advantage or personal convenience. The pressure of exacting claims on his attention was continuous, but it seemed never able to ruffle his serenity nor impair the soundness of his judgment. Many will mourn him as a genial and trusted friend, but only those who know something of his recent activities can have any idea of the magnitude of the nation’s loss.

Honours:
CMG 1918
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election05/05/1910
RelationshipsSon of John Hopkinson (FRS 1878) and Mrs.E. Hopkinson (born Evelyn Oldenbourg), of 'Ellerslie', Adams Rd, Cambridge; eldest of three boys and three girls; brother-in-law of Sir James Alfred Ewing (FRS 1887); husband of Mariana Hopkinson (nee Siemens) of 10 Adams Rd., Cambridge. Married in 1903 to the eldest daughter of Mr Alexander Siemens.
SourcesSources:
Bulloch's Roll
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc Series A 1918-1919 vol 95 pp xxvi-xxvi, plate, signed by J A E
The Times, 12 September 1918, by Sir Alfred Ewing
References:
T M Charlton, 'Professor Bertram Hopkinson, CMG, MA, BSc, FRS (1874-1918)' in NR 1974-5 vol 29 pp 101-109

Online sources;
http://kingscollections.org/warmemorials/kings-college/memorials/hopkinson-bertram
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/59450460
Royal Society codeNA7297
Archives associated with this Fellow
Reference numberTitleDate
MS/525/6/4/3Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, National Club, 1 Whitehall Gardens, to [Dugald] Clerk 28 December 1914
EC/1910/11Hopkinson, Bertram: certificate of election to the Royal Society
MS/525/5/1/18Telegram from Bertram Hopkinson to Dugald Clerk26 December 1914
MS/525/5/2/27Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Admiralty, to Dugald Clerk9 May 1915
MS/525/5/2/39Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Admiralty, to [Dugald] Clerk4 July 1915
MS/525/5/1/17Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, 10 Adams Road, Cambridge, to Dugald Clerk25 December [1914]
MS/525/5/1/19Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Admiralty, to [Dugald] Clerk 26 December [1914]
MS/525/5/2/60Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge, to [Dugald] Clerk7 October 1915
MS/525/5/2/19Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Westover, Milford-on-Sea, Hants, to Dugald Clerk25 April [1915]
MS/525/5/2/36Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, [15?] Albemarle Street to [Dugald] Clerk[1915]
MS/525/5/2/61Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Admiralty Board of Invention and Research, Victory House, Cockspur Street11 October 1915
MS/525/6/4/7'Note on explosives' by Bertram Hopkinson1914-1915
MS/525/6/4/5Letter from Bertram Hopkinson to E H W Tennyson-D'Eyncourt, Admiralty4 January 1915
MS/525/6/4/8Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge to Dugald Clerk, 57/58 Lincoln's Inn Fields4 June 1915
MS/525/6/4/6Report from [Bertram Hopkinson] to the Secretary, The Admiralty, London18 March 1915
MS/525/6/6/2/3Draft letter from [Bertram Hopkinson], Admiralty, to Commander [A L ] Gwynne 3 February 1915
MS/525/6/6/1/19Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge, to Dugald Clerk, 57 Lincoln's Inn Fields. London 3 January 1915
MS/525/6/6/1/25'Suggested tests of anchors' [by Bertram Hopkinson] 18 January 1915
MS/525/6/6/1/24Letter from Bertram Hopkinson to Lieutenant Commander Gwynne, HMS Vernon, Portsmouth18 January 1915
MS/525/6/8/15Letter from Bertram Hopkinson, Admiralty, to [Dugald] Clerk8 August [1915]
MS/525/7/3/6Letter from Bertram Hopkinson to Dugald Clerk21 July 1915
NLB/48/272Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor [Bertram] Hopkinson, Fellow of the Royal Society7 June 1913
NLB/44/401Copy letter from Joseph Larmor to [Bertram] Hopkinson6 July 1911
RR/16/326Referee's report by James Alfred Ewing, on a paper 'The elastic properties of steel at high temperatures' by Bertram Hopkinson and F Rogers8 July 1905
RR/17/52Referee's report by Hugh Longbourne Callendar, on a paper 'Explosions of coal-gas and air' by Bertram Hopkinson[February 1906]
NLB/18/350Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to B Hopkinson, 26 Victoria Street, S.W.27 February 1899
NLB/32/258Copy letter from Joseph Larmor, to Hugh Longbourne Callendar, [Fellow of the Royal Society]8 February 1906
NLB/30/232Copy letter from Joseph Larmor, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson, [Fellow of the Royal Society], Trinity College, CambridgeFebruary 1905
NLB/30/204Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson, [Fellow of the Royal Society]13 February 1905
NLB/30/600Copy letter from Joseph Larmor, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson, [Fellow of the Royal Society], and F Rogers13 April 1905
NLB/32/305Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to W A Tookey, 19 Old Queen Street, Westminster, S.W.16 February 1906
NLB/32/341Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Hugh Longbourne Callendar, Fellow of the Royal Society22 February 1906
NLB/42/385Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Messrs Harrison & Sons1 June 1910
NLB/35/129Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson19 April 1907
NLB/42/377Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Messrs Harrison & Sons1 June 1910
NLB/42/565Copy letter from Joseph Larmor to Professor B [Bertram] Hopkinson FRS 8 July 1910
NLB/42/402Copy letter from Theodore E James to Messrs Harrison & Sons6 June 1910
NLB/42/619Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Professor B [Bertram] Hopkinson FRS 19 July 1910
NLB/42/633Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Professor B [Bertram] Hopkinson FRS 21 July 1910
NLB/43/324Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson, Fellow of the Royal Society10 December 1910
NLB/43/685Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson, Fellow of the Royal Society10 March 1911
NLB/44/816Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Professor B [Bertram] Hopkinson FRS20 November 1911
NLB/46/119Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson, Fellow of the Royal Society12 June 1912
NLB/46/828Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson, Fellow of the Royal Society7 November 1912
NLB/47/35Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Professor B [Bertram] Hopkinson FRS18 November 1912
NLB/48/460Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor [Bertram] Hopkinson, Fellow of the Royal Society8 July 1913
NLB/51/242Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society to Professor Bertram Hopkinson FRS22 January 1915
NLB/54/509Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Messrs Harrison & Sons5 June 1917
RR/21/143Referee's report by Bertram Hopkinson, on a paper 'The determination of fatigue limits under alternating stress conditions' by C E Stromeyer[May 1914]
RR/20/92Referee's report by Bertram Hopkinson, on a paper 'Note on copying machinery' by A Mallock17 June 1913
NLB/57/213Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to unknown correspondent19 August 1919
NLB/55/852Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir [James] Alfred Ewing, FRS16 October 1918
NLB/55/152Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Bertram] Hopkinson, FRS21 December 1917
MC/34/25Letter from J.B. Peace, University Press, Cambridge, to [Robert] Harrison, [Royal Society]29 May 1919
NLB/56/611Copy letter from Dr. Arthur Schuster, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Mrs Hopkinson, Mother of Bertram Hopkinson, FRS27 March 1919
RR/17/51Referee's report by Arthur Schuster, on a paper 'A recording calorimeter for explosions' by Bertram Hopkinson[January 1907]
RR/18/42Referee's report by George Frederick Charles Searle, on a paper 'On the magnetic properties of iron and its alloys in intense field' by Robert Abbott Hadfield and Bertram Hopkinson14 June 1910
RR/20/139Referee's report by Bertram Hopkinson, on a paper 'The determination of elastic limits under alternating stress conditions' by C E Stromeyer26 December 1913
NLB/57/61Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to J.B. Peace Esq.; Cambridge University Press10 July 1919
NLB/57/92Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to unknown correspondent [Messrs. Harrison & Sons; St Martins Lane]17 July 1919
RR/18/49Referee's report by Hugh Longbourne Callendar, on a paper 'On radiation in a gaseous explosion' by Bertram HopkinsonMay 1910
RR/21/69Referee's report by Bertram Hopkinson, on two papers 'The measurement of arterial pressure in man. I.—The auditory method' and 'The measurement of arterial pressure in man. II.—A schematic investigation' by Martin Flack, Leonard Erskine Hill and James McQueen28 January 1915
NLB/36/363Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Bertram Hopkinson, Engineering Laboratories, Cambridge18 October 1907
NLB/42/433Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to J [Joseph] Barcroft, FRS [Fellow of the Royal Society]13 June 1910
NLB/54/553Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Major Betram Hopkinson; Air Board Office, the Strand, W. C. 18 June 1917
NLB/57New Letter Book volume 57, copy letters sent from Royal Society administration27 June 1919-27 February 1920
RR/19/121Referee's report by Bertram Hopkinson, on a paper 'A standard measuring machine' by P E Shaw9 July 1912
RR/20/68Referee's report by Charles Vernon Boys, on a paper 'A method of measuring the pressure produced in the detonation of high explosives or by the impact of bullets' by Bertram HopkinsonOctober 1913
RR/20/69Referee's report by Joseph Ernest Petavel, on a paper 'A method of measuring the pressure produced in the detonation of high explosives or by the impact of bullets' by Bertram Hopkinson4 November 1913
RR/20/102Referee's report by Bertram Hopkinson, on a paper 'The influence of molecular constitution and temperature on magnetic susceptibility' by A E Oxley20 January 1914
MC/18/39Letter from [James Alfred Ewing], Admiralty, to [Joseph] Larmor9 June 1903
MC/25/108Letter from [Bertram] Hopkinson, Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge, to The Assistant Secretary, The Royal Society, Burlington House, W18 July 1910
MC/21Volume 21 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1906
MC/28/151Letter from [Bertram] Hopkinson, Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge, to The Assistant Secretary, The Royal Society, Burlington House, W18 November 1913
MC/18Volume 18 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1903
MC/21/315Letter [Bertram] Hopkinson, Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge, to the Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House13 February 1906
MC/21/314Letter [Bertram] Hopkinson, Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge, to the Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House12 February 1906
MC/32/143Letter from [Bertram] Hopkinson, War Office, Adastral House, Victoria Embankment, E.C, to The Secretary, Royal Society, Burlington House26 January 1917
MC/34/102Letter from Mrs E. Hopkinson, 79 Ladbroke Road, W. 11., to the [Royal Society]12 June 1919
MC/34/64Letter from [James Alfred] Ewing, University of Edingburgh, 16 Moray Place, Edinburgh, to The Assistant Secretary, The Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W.1.28 March 1919
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