Henry Rainsford Hulme
| Henry Rainsford Hulme | |
|---|---|
| Born |
9 August 1908 Southport, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 8 January 1991 (aged 82) Basingstoke, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Scientist, Civil Servant |
| Notable work | United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority |
| Spouse(s) | Hilda Marion Reavley (1937–1955, divorced) Margery Alice Ducker (1955–1990, her death) |
| Children |
Anne Perry (Juliet Marion Hulme) (1938–) Jonathan Rainsford Hulme (1944–) |
Henry Rainsford Hulme (9 August 1908 – 8 January 1991) was a British scientist who had a helping hand in the creation of the British H-Bomb and is considered one of the four major minds behind the project, but is also known as the father of author and murderer Anne Perry.
Hulme was born to James Rainsford Hulme and Alice Jane Smith. His father was at the time director of Hulme Brothers Limited which operated in and around Southport, Lancashire. He attended Southport Modern School before winning a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School in 1920. He excelled while at the Manchester Grammar School and came top of his class every year bar one. After leaving the Manchester Grammar School he went to study Mathematics and Physics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, which he entered on 1 October 1926. He obtained a B.A. (Maths Tripos) in 1929 and a Ph.D. in 1932, and while he was there he won many prizes and achievements relating to his studies. He also studied at the University of Leipzig.
His first job appears to have been as a teacher in Mathematics at the University of Liverpool, between 1936–1938. While working there he met his first wife Hilda Marion Reavley and they married in first half of 1937. Not long after the marriage, Hulme accepted a position at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich as the Chief Assistant. Even though he listed in his biography in Who's Who that he held this position from 1938 to 1945 he was really there full-time for two years. During this period he wrote numerous papers that were published in the journals of the time.
While working at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, World War II broke out and it wasn't long before he was loaned out for war work in 1940 as Chief Scientist in the Degaussing Department (mine design department), in charge of 50 men. In 1942 he became Deputy Director of Operational Research at the Admiralty, where he was a member of Blackett's Circle, which looked at the problem of how to stop mines sticking to the hulls of ships when they were magnetised. By the end of the war he had risen to the position of Director Operational Research at the Admiralty. It was at the end the war that he resigned his position at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and began working as a Scientific Advisor to the British Air Ministry. During this period he also visited the United States to see the Manhattan Project and the construction of the US nuclear bomb. Even though he had been loaned out on war work he tried to keep contact with the Royal Observatory and in 1942, Hulme became the secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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