1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:08,550 OK, well, everyone, welcome to the first of the Friends of the Bodley lunchtime lectures for this term. 2 00:00:08,550 --> 00:00:12,720 These lectures are open to everyone this class of public benefit of the charity. 3 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:16,920 But of course we have many events that are exclusive to members. 4 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:23,790 And if those in the audience who are thinking of becoming members, we have brochures here and you can go online. 5 00:00:23,790 --> 00:00:29,130 Just give you one example at the coming AGM on the 25th of June. 6 00:00:29,130 --> 00:00:34,630 We shall have the poets. We shall have the novelist Margaret Drabble speaking to us for that. 7 00:00:34,630 --> 00:00:38,250 That will be for members a members only now. 8 00:00:38,250 --> 00:00:45,070 Today, I'm absolutely delighted to welcome our most distinguished speaker, Frank Lucas, 9 00:00:45,070 --> 00:00:53,280 who is emeritus professor of theoretical physics and emeritus fellow at Exeter College since 2001, 10 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:57,900 and he's very well known to many of you for his numerous very elegant books and popular science, 11 00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:02,220 including The Void, The Infinity Puzzle and Anti-Matter. 12 00:01:02,220 --> 00:01:09,840 And I should tell you that some time ago, I saw Very Cool a Dan Brown movie and asked one of my colleagues about the 13 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:15,240 physicist Was it possible to carry a bucket of anti-matter into the Vatican? 14 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:25,770 And by way of response, they gave me friends, spoke spoken anti-matter, which I then read, so I now know it is now packed. 15 00:01:25,770 --> 00:01:37,290 Prior to 2001, Professor Place was head of theoretical physics rather lab on the Harwell campus, a post that in 1949 was held by Clough Swoosh. 16 00:01:37,290 --> 00:01:47,820 The Atom spy and Wright got his details from Oxford in 1970, when Rudolf Pyles, father of the atomic bomb was professor. 17 00:01:47,820 --> 00:01:57,360 Many of papers, including communications with fish, are housed in the Bodleian, and today Anne Frank will reveal some of these to us. 18 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,920 These are documents which helped him research his latest, highly acclaimed book, 19 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:12,420 Trinity The Treachery in Pursuit of the Most Dangerous Spy in History, and Copies are available in Blackwell's if anyone wishes. 20 00:02:12,420 --> 00:02:22,900 When afterwards. So I would ask you to give a very warm welcome indeed to Professor Close. 21 00:02:22,900 --> 00:02:24,410 Thank you very much. 22 00:02:24,410 --> 00:02:32,530 I mean, I should start by thanking innumerable people here in the modelling that helped me over the last several years in the research. 23 00:02:32,530 --> 00:02:39,160 Too many to name, but I would like in particular to to mention Colin Harris, who's here, as we will see. 24 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:46,870 There's a wonderful collection of photographs that Chris Fletcher, who's in the college, told me about two to three years ago. 25 00:02:46,870 --> 00:02:52,030 And Colin, and I think the best of the whole of the research was the day that we cracked the code, 26 00:02:52,030 --> 00:02:55,780 which showed how to work out which negatives corresponded to which pictures in this. 27 00:02:55,780 --> 00:03:03,940 And while you see the benefits of that, let me just give you some background to this before I focus in on the modelling contribution. 28 00:03:03,940 --> 00:03:10,360 So Rudolf Pyles or Rudy, he was the we call him professor here from 1963, 29 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:18,970 and he has been widely acclaimed as being the greatest theoretical physicist never to have won the Nobel prise for today's talk. 30 00:03:18,970 --> 00:03:27,100 I think perhaps the two things we need to bring out are that in 1940 he was like the father of the atomic bomb, 31 00:03:27,100 --> 00:03:35,230 and I will explain what I mean by that in a moment and also became a mentor to the atomic spy Klaus Fuchs. 32 00:03:35,230 --> 00:03:39,640 And the reason that I called the book Trinity was twofold. 33 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:47,770 One was that Trinity was the codename for the first test of the atomic bomb in 1945. 34 00:03:47,770 --> 00:03:57,910 But also, there's a sort of slight, you could say, the religious aspects the father, son and Holy Ghost that pyles was buying regular claim. 35 00:03:57,910 --> 00:04:06,370 The the father of the atomic bomb, Klaus Fuchs, who was his assistant, lived with the family in their home in Birmingham, 36 00:04:06,370 --> 00:04:10,750 initially became almost a member of the family and was described as almost like a son. 37 00:04:10,750 --> 00:04:14,110 So there's the father and the son. There isn't any Holy Ghost in this, 38 00:04:14,110 --> 00:04:22,870 but there are the spooks of MI5 and FBI because one of the things that fascinated me when I was doing the research, as we will see, 39 00:04:22,870 --> 00:04:29,200 was that the reason that Fuchs eventually got caught was that some mention of him in some 40 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:38,020 Russian coded cables were deciphered by GQ and pointed to either piles or Fuchs being a spy. 41 00:04:38,020 --> 00:04:44,290 And I was fascinated to know how the security services eventually decided, indeed, that it was Fuchs and not piles. 42 00:04:44,290 --> 00:04:49,810 So to give a bit of a flesh the outline, and then we'll move in on it. 43 00:04:49,810 --> 00:04:55,600 Pyles had the idea of the atomic bomb in 1940. By 1941. 44 00:04:55,600 --> 00:05:01,210 He was desperately in need of an assistant, and that is how Klaus Fuchs came to work with him. 45 00:05:01,210 --> 00:05:06,910 They were both. They had both fled from Germany, from Nazi Germany piles because he was Jewish. 46 00:05:06,910 --> 00:05:10,300 Fuchs because he was anti-Nazi, as we will see. 47 00:05:10,300 --> 00:05:18,680 And initially at the University of Birmingham, they worked for two years working out the theory of how to. 48 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:23,840 Enrich uranium into a form that could be used to make a bomb. 49 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:33,980 And the experimental tests of that theory were done up the road here in the Clarendon Lab, initially by 1944. 50 00:05:33,980 --> 00:05:40,880 The whole project moved across North America, and Fuchs and Pyles were part of the British delegation that went across there. 51 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:45,050 And folks continued passing information to the Russians, initially from New York, 52 00:05:45,050 --> 00:05:54,470 and then they will move to Los Alamos, where the bomb itself was constructed. The bomb was tested used over Japan at the end of the war. 53 00:05:54,470 --> 00:06:00,350 Fuchs stayed in Los Alamos for one further year, and then he came back to Harwell, 54 00:06:00,350 --> 00:06:06,890 the new laboratory just down the road here from Oxford, which was developing the beginnings of nuclear power. 55 00:06:06,890 --> 00:06:09,590 And he continued passing information to the Russians. 56 00:06:09,590 --> 00:06:15,530 And by this stage, we know in the Cold War during the war itself, the Russians at least were allies, 57 00:06:15,530 --> 00:06:20,870 whereas in the post-war period the Cold War was beginning and it was a very different kettle of fish. 58 00:06:20,870 --> 00:06:22,730 So from 1941 to 1950, 59 00:06:22,730 --> 00:06:31,070 Fuchs was passing information for nine whole years on the atomic bomb and the emerging knowledge of nuclear power to the Russians. 60 00:06:31,070 --> 00:06:41,720 And he would have got away with it had it not been for the fact that in August 1949, some descriptions were finally successful of Russian cables. 61 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:46,880 One of these referred to an agent by codename Rest. 62 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:55,970 All that it was possible to deduce about rest was that he was a British scientist who had been working on a particular area of science in New York, 63 00:06:55,970 --> 00:07:01,970 and it was either piles or fix one of the things I discovered, but not from the modelling. 64 00:07:01,970 --> 00:07:06,560 Unfortunately, for 60 years, it has always been believed that it was J. 65 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:15,830 Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the National Security Agency in the states that were the prime movers in cracking the codes that led to the exposure. 66 00:07:15,830 --> 00:07:20,660 And I discovered that is not the case. It was actually GC HQ that were key to this. 67 00:07:20,660 --> 00:07:26,240 And I'll say no more about that. If you want to know more about it, you can read about it in the book or ask me in private. 68 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:31,790 But today, as far as I know, there's nothing in the body and about that, but who knows what might still be buried there? 69 00:07:31,790 --> 00:07:36,800 So let's get into the story for us to introduce the characters. 70 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:48,560 Rudolph and Jennifer Pyles were both Jewish. He was German, she was Russian, and they fled from Germany in 1932 for racial reasons. 71 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:54,710 Klaus Fuchs was born in 1911. He was Lutheran. He was a Social Democrat and an anti-Nazi Nazi. 72 00:07:54,710 --> 00:08:04,790 Now, in 1933, when the Nazis took over in Germany, the Communists were the only people prepared to put candidates up against them in the elections. 73 00:08:04,790 --> 00:08:12,200 And that is how Fuchs then became involved as a student activist and eventually a member of the Communist Party. 74 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:19,580 He was then on a Gestapo hit list, and he was tipped off that the Gestapo were about to arrest him. 75 00:08:19,580 --> 00:08:27,680 And he managed to escape, and he escaped initially to France and then came across to Britain, to Bristol. 76 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:36,130 And that was where he was when the war began. Now, this is for some reason, frozen. 77 00:08:36,130 --> 00:08:43,870 Good. OK. So we now come to the first of the documents that are in the Bodleian. 78 00:08:43,870 --> 00:08:50,500 The original idea that led to the atomic bomb 1940 in Birmingham. 79 00:08:50,500 --> 00:09:01,990 Rudolph Pyle's and Otto Frisch, another emigre from Germany, had the insight the idea of nuclear fission have been discovered in 1938. 80 00:09:01,990 --> 00:09:08,860 That was well known. People thought it might be possible to build what we now call a nuclear reactor if you had tons of the stuff. 81 00:09:08,860 --> 00:09:12,400 But the idea of making a nuclear explosion seem to be impossible. 82 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:22,750 Then Pyles realised that if you could enrich this uranium, there are about seven atoms in every thousand of uranium our special uranium 235, 83 00:09:22,750 --> 00:09:27,850 and they are the bits that are potentially explosive, but they're only seven in every 1000. 84 00:09:27,850 --> 00:09:33,910 If you could have enriched uranium to have more of that stuff, how much would you need to make an explosion? 85 00:09:33,910 --> 00:09:40,720 And the shock was when they discovered that the size of a grapefruit would be sufficient to make a nuclear explosion. 86 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:49,780 And that was the moments when the whole project that eventually led to the atomic bomb began and fresh and piles wrote a memorandum. 87 00:09:49,780 --> 00:09:58,000 And there's a photocopy there of part of that memorandum from the bodley in here. 88 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:09,220 They actually wrote two memoranda, one a technical version and one a shorter pedagogic version for the use of politicians and others. 89 00:10:09,220 --> 00:10:17,210 The technical version is the one that we have here in the Bodleian. The pedagogic version is in the National Archives in Kew. 90 00:10:17,210 --> 00:10:27,940 And I'll just quickly give you three bits from this. Remember, this is 1940, and they've discovered the idea of an atomic bomb as a weapon. 91 00:10:27,940 --> 00:10:33,910 The super bomb would be practically irresistible. That's the very first thing that they say. 92 00:10:33,910 --> 00:10:39,720 There is no material or structure that could resist the force of the explosion. 93 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:46,150 That's the first thing that has frightened owing to the spreading of radioactive substances with the wind. 94 00:10:46,150 --> 00:10:50,890 The bomb could probably not be used without killing large numbers of civilians. 95 00:10:50,890 --> 00:10:56,170 And this may make it unsuitable as a weapon for use by this country. 96 00:10:56,170 --> 00:11:01,870 And then the third point, if one were the moment they have discovered this. 97 00:11:01,870 --> 00:11:10,540 The immediate panic is anybody who done research knows you hit your head against the wall trying to solve the problem the moment you've solved it. 98 00:11:10,540 --> 00:11:14,110 It seems so obvious you wonder why it took so long. 99 00:11:14,110 --> 00:11:22,180 So fission piles have now realised the answer, and the immediate thought is How's Germany already got this far? 100 00:11:22,180 --> 00:11:28,690 And so they then say if one works on the assumption that Germany is or will be in the possession of this weapon, 101 00:11:28,690 --> 00:11:35,080 it must be realised that no shelters are available that will be effective and could be used in a large scale. 102 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:40,330 The most effective reply would be a counter threat with a similar bomb. 103 00:11:40,330 --> 00:11:47,560 So in 1940, in this memorandum, they have already had the idea of what we now call mutually assured destruction. 104 00:11:47,560 --> 00:11:52,090 And it was the fear that the Germans could be developing this weapon that led to the whole project, 105 00:11:52,090 --> 00:11:57,070 which was originally known as tube alloys and then became the Manhattan Project. 106 00:11:57,070 --> 00:12:05,080 Now, by May 1941, the work was getting so intense that Pyles was needing the assistance he knew of Klaus Fuchs. 107 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:13,780 And Fuchs came and joins him as the assistant and lived in the house with them as a member of the family like a son. 108 00:12:13,780 --> 00:12:22,540 And I thought we might start by just hearing Rudolph piles from the archives here saying it himself, how he hired Fuchs. 109 00:12:22,540 --> 00:12:28,570 And then the second clip, some comments about their politics. 110 00:12:28,570 --> 00:12:35,710 I know before the war, when he was first a graduate student in Bristol, well, we have common interests. 111 00:12:35,710 --> 00:12:40,880 Some of his work, which we discussed it, came to respect him as a scientist. 112 00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:47,410 So what do we need more people in the world? 113 00:12:47,410 --> 00:12:56,230 I decided to ask back to work with us on theoretical work relating to public energy. 114 00:12:56,230 --> 00:13:03,560 I couldn't believe that, of course I talking. Something important. 115 00:13:03,560 --> 00:13:09,050 Thank you, Ken. I definitely was extremely useful. 116 00:13:09,050 --> 00:13:14,820 Will. Quick on the uptake, flexible, willing to look at. 117 00:13:14,820 --> 00:13:31,650 No problems. From that point of view, I think it made a better choice that we had a very big heart and always. 118 00:13:31,650 --> 00:13:38,430 We've made politics possible at that time. They have course everybody. 119 00:13:38,430 --> 00:13:48,620 Same view. Other things must have come up, I don't recall, but certainly the best political discussions in his presence. 120 00:13:48,620 --> 00:13:57,760 And he managed them later to give the impression that he had everybody else's will be our guest at that time. 121 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:03,160 There probably was. Some of the volunteers. 122 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:12,580 But in no way. So that's piles the little icon whenever you see the Bodleian libraries icon, that means it's from the archives here. 123 00:14:12,580 --> 00:14:16,930 So that is pyles view of Fuchs now. 124 00:14:16,930 --> 00:14:18,820 Fuchs was already a member of the Communist Party. 125 00:14:18,820 --> 00:14:29,410 That didn't tell anybody that, obviously, and I was astonished that in the National Archives, the there are 25 volumes of MI5 files on Fuchs. 126 00:14:29,410 --> 00:14:38,830 And the very first entry in all of those volumes is a letter from 1934 in which the German police have pointed out that 127 00:14:38,830 --> 00:14:45,940 Fuchs was in the Communist Party and that they had found books of the Communist Party in Futurs House when it was raided. 128 00:14:45,940 --> 00:14:54,040 But the security authorities completely disregarded this because it originated with the Gestapo, and therefore they regard it as not trustworthy. 129 00:14:54,040 --> 00:15:01,420 And the great irony is that throughout the whole of future's career, every time he was vetted, initially when he started with piles. 130 00:15:01,420 --> 00:15:06,100 Secondly, when he moved across the North America. Thirdly, when he went to Los Alamos. 131 00:15:06,100 --> 00:15:15,940 Fourthly, when he came to Harwell post war on each and every occasion, this was disregarded because he came from the Gestapo. 132 00:15:15,940 --> 00:15:21,910 The so he's now working with piles from May forty one in June 41. 133 00:15:21,910 --> 00:15:28,210 The pact between the Soviet Union and Nazis broke down, so the Soviets now became our allies. 134 00:15:28,210 --> 00:15:32,230 Churchill gave a speech on the old home service Radio four. 135 00:15:32,230 --> 00:15:39,010 It now is in which he said that Stalin is now our ally and we will do everything we can to help. 136 00:15:39,010 --> 00:15:43,000 And I think folks took that as a call to arms and started spying. 137 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:51,010 And for the first year or so, there's the famous story of how he used to meet what was called the girl from Banbury, 138 00:15:51,010 --> 00:16:03,040 Ursula Kaczynski, who was the chief illegal for the glue network of the Soviet Union here during the war. 139 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:12,700 She lived up the Woodstock Road for a while, then in Killington, and then the time when she was dealing with folks was nearer to chipping Norton. 140 00:16:12,700 --> 00:16:19,990 Great role, right? And she would go to Bhambri, and Fuchs would come from Birmingham to Banbury, 141 00:16:19,990 --> 00:16:26,920 and they would meet and he would pass information to her and she would ship it across to the Russians. 142 00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:33,310 And one of the fascinating questions to me had always been, Well, how did Fuchs manage to do this? 143 00:16:33,310 --> 00:16:43,510 He's living in the pyles house. He has to get away, have a good reason to be out going after Bhambri in the middle of the war time to meet this woman. 144 00:16:43,510 --> 00:16:51,130 And indeed, I've now found an answer, at least on one occasion, thanks to some papers that are here in the Bodleian. 145 00:16:51,130 --> 00:16:56,500 The bit at the bottom there is not from the body, and that is a transcription of some KGB files. 146 00:16:56,500 --> 00:17:03,910 The report on Fuchs passing information via via Sonya, as she was known. 147 00:17:03,910 --> 00:17:12,670 What's interesting is the dates at the bottom. He passed information on five occasions to her. 148 00:17:12,670 --> 00:17:20,020 One of them was Twelfth of July 1943. I've highlighted that one on the 12th of July 1943. 149 00:17:20,020 --> 00:17:26,710 Information was passed to the Soviet Union from the Soviet Embassy. 150 00:17:26,710 --> 00:17:34,480 So Fuchs had given that information to Sonya some days before that here in the Baldwin Library. 151 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:41,110 I decided to tackle things in two ways. One was to look at every entry in the index and the Fuchs. 152 00:17:41,110 --> 00:17:48,280 And then I also decided I would look at everything under the dates covering from 1941 through the forty nine. 153 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:53,140 And in 1943 July, I found two very interesting letters. 154 00:17:53,140 --> 00:18:03,440 So remember, Twelfth of July is the date when this information has been passed from Sonia on the you can read it better than me on the 6th of July. 155 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:07,330 The professor, who Rothery, who was actually a chemist here at Oxford, 156 00:18:07,330 --> 00:18:15,880 has been writing a book and he's wanting it to have some checks made and he writes to piles and the suggestions be made that perhaps 157 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:26,120 folks might check some of the equations in this book and piles on the 8th of July replies that Fuchs is on holiday this week. 158 00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:32,870 So his holiday obviously include a meeting with Sonia. So that's at least on one occasion, is how he covered his tracks, you know, 159 00:18:32,870 --> 00:18:38,750 completely innocent letters until you happened by total chance to notice the dates corresponding with other things. 160 00:18:38,750 --> 00:18:42,170 So that is, you know, after the event, we know how he did it. 161 00:18:42,170 --> 00:18:48,950 On one occasion, was he always able to keep himself so in the in the clear? 162 00:18:48,950 --> 00:18:56,600 Well, not according to Jeneyah Piles. And this fascinating interview with her is in the modelling records. 163 00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:04,930 Any of you who ever heard Jeneyah speaking will be looking forward to hearing to her unique style of speaking English. 164 00:19:04,930 --> 00:19:14,610 Oh, all right, cool. We always associate his mind. 165 00:19:14,610 --> 00:19:24,470 It's great that he went outside the Russian embassy when he went through his contacts in Lausanne. 166 00:19:24,470 --> 00:19:33,000 And, you know, so on. I called him Quentin because we out after these events. 167 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:38,700 He relaxed all rustic. 168 00:19:38,700 --> 00:19:53,510 Look, that wouldn't usually have much depth that you would never think that he would lie very cool, looking miserable and big. 169 00:19:53,510 --> 00:20:00,090 And that's a great time, one I can't remember exactly. 170 00:20:00,090 --> 00:20:10,890 But that it's struck me. But it was subconscious because he was involved in the role that he won and that he 171 00:20:10,890 --> 00:20:20,440 became his friend because I was looking for just that so clever somatic cell phones. 172 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:30,770 I sat. The next clip from Jeneyah is a description of Fuchs as a man who would hardly think this is what a spy should be like. 173 00:20:30,770 --> 00:20:42,190 Let me play this next one. Optimistic people ask these are the fact that people would have thought. 174 00:20:42,190 --> 00:20:50,670 In fact, the one got that bottle of vodka. I suppose you have to relax if you're a spy. 175 00:20:50,670 --> 00:20:56,820 So that was the first period of his spying, the time in Birmingham. 176 00:20:56,820 --> 00:21:03,900 There's nothing in the files here about the time when they're in America that you have to go elsewhere. 177 00:21:03,900 --> 00:21:10,530 Then they all hate. The war was over. Piles returns to Birmingham University. 178 00:21:10,530 --> 00:21:18,420 He didn't come to Oxford until 63, and Fuchs came to be head of the theoretical physics department at Harwell. 179 00:21:18,420 --> 00:21:25,710 Thank you very much. An introduction for not introducing me like somebody who said that I was successor to Klaus Fuchs, 180 00:21:25,710 --> 00:21:28,860 which I wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not. 181 00:21:28,860 --> 00:21:34,830 And so what I what I wanted to show you now is something remarkable in the bottle collection. 182 00:21:34,830 --> 00:21:42,540 Chris Fletcher. It actually college told me two or three years ago that the Bodleian had managed to purchase or 183 00:21:42,540 --> 00:21:47,850 were in the process of purchasing a photographic collection from a scientist name of Tony Skimm. 184 00:21:47,850 --> 00:21:56,490 Now, Tony Sq.m. Was a member of the British delegation in New York and Los Alamos, and he was an avid photographer. 185 00:21:56,490 --> 00:22:02,550 Very high quality photographs. I mean, you'll be able to see later. 186 00:22:02,550 --> 00:22:15,160 The. This lovely American collection in this one here, the other folders are more classic 1950s British type of photographic books. 187 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:24,730 But in the books, here are digital contact prints that he has made, which are sort of have limited use and help. 188 00:22:24,730 --> 00:22:32,170 But there is an extensive index of all of the the images that he's taken. 189 00:22:32,170 --> 00:22:36,580 It includes his comments on how good they were. 190 00:22:36,580 --> 00:22:47,620 And amongst them eventually. In fact, Colin noticed that some of their Rudy on skis and gender and class on skis and so on. 191 00:22:47,620 --> 00:22:52,540 So there was clear reference to photographs of the piles. 192 00:22:52,540 --> 00:22:58,780 And it turns out in 1947, class folks hardly ever took any vacation. 193 00:22:58,780 --> 00:23:01,780 On the one occasion he did in forty seven, 194 00:23:01,780 --> 00:23:11,650 he went on a skiing holiday with the pyles family and with Tony Scott and Tony Scott and recorded this in photographs. 195 00:23:11,650 --> 00:23:22,490 That was the good news you find in here. A little thumbnail picture of Jennifer Piles and Klaus Fuchs on skis. 196 00:23:22,490 --> 00:23:26,920 But actually, that was rather limited value because it was so small. 197 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:36,500 Even taking a photograph of it wasn't very good. And then Colin noticed, you know, there was whole folders full of negatives. 198 00:23:36,500 --> 00:23:44,540 And I think my sole contribution to the Bodleian Archives research was the day that we cracked the code to 199 00:23:44,540 --> 00:23:52,700 show how the Tony Schemes list of negative numbers could be used to find the relevant negatives in the back. 200 00:23:52,700 --> 00:23:56,510 Well, it was possible to find two within five negatives and little sac. 201 00:23:56,510 --> 00:24:00,170 Then you had to put them on a light box and try mentally to imagine them. 202 00:24:00,170 --> 00:24:07,280 The other way around is to which is the one you're looking for. And eventually we found them, and the quality of the images is remarkable. 203 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:12,020 I mean, here is a photograph of Jenna and playoffs. 204 00:24:12,020 --> 00:24:16,070 And in fact, I have got that particular book open that page. 205 00:24:16,070 --> 00:24:21,140 You can look at it afterwards, but to show you the quality of it, once you've got the negative, 206 00:24:21,140 --> 00:24:28,730 you can then have that printed up in the bubbly and did, and you can zoom in and just look at the quality. 207 00:24:28,730 --> 00:24:39,990 You are able to see the faces of the piles and Klaus Fuchs, his face in that image that was taken by squirm out there on the ski slopes. 208 00:24:39,990 --> 00:24:46,830 You see them all resting, that is class folks lying on a rock wall behind him, Rudy Piles, 209 00:24:46,830 --> 00:24:53,720 is whether he's taking a photograph or having a drink, I don't know, but they're having a rest during this trip. 210 00:24:53,720 --> 00:25:03,380 To me, the most fascinating one because of the story with it is this picture here, which is Rudy piles in the front. 211 00:25:03,380 --> 00:25:06,770 You can see Klaus Fuchs off on the left and next. 212 00:25:06,770 --> 00:25:16,670 The clouds, folks, is Ronnie piles that was piles his son and then behind him is Jenny Piles and their daughter, Gabby. 213 00:25:16,670 --> 00:25:20,720 Now of those people, Gabby Piles is the only one still alive. 214 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:28,610 She's 89 living in the states. And she was totally unaware of these photographs. 215 00:25:28,610 --> 00:25:34,490 And she told me a story which had nothing to do with them, but it was about class, folks. 216 00:25:34,490 --> 00:25:37,820 And then you will see why I'm telling you this story. 217 00:25:37,820 --> 00:25:46,730 She said that Class Fox really was a member of the family, and she and her brother, Ronnie, loved him because he was unusual. 218 00:25:46,730 --> 00:25:52,880 He was one of the very few adults that treated them like grown ups and they loved him. 219 00:25:52,880 --> 00:26:01,940 And she particularly remembered how kind he was because once they were on a skiing holiday in Switzerland and they had been on a long, 220 00:26:01,940 --> 00:26:06,800 long hike and her younger brother was getting very tired and falling behind. 221 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:15,030 She said My father was beginning to get cross. And Klaus Fuchs stayed with my brother and urged him on J for the picture. 222 00:26:15,030 --> 00:26:23,160 In fact, as we zoom in, you can almost see there is there is Rudy, you striding on wanting them to keep coming in the background? 223 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:27,700 There is Klaus Fuchs with Ronnie and Zoom in further. 224 00:26:27,700 --> 00:26:31,720 And even further, the quality in this picture is remarkable. 225 00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:38,170 You can see Future's face, you can see Ronnie piles his face on that particular trip. 226 00:26:38,170 --> 00:26:48,520 So that's another sequence of things that I had great fun with Colin, uh, going through and you can have a look at the folders there. 227 00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:58,880 Uh, the the next sequence of things that came out of the Bodleian was something totally unexpected. 228 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:03,560 I found some evidence of spying that folks did. 229 00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:13,160 That has never been recorded before, and it's all lying there in the body and except you would never know it was. 230 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:18,170 Unless you stumble by accident only then. Well, I'll tell you how it came about, I said that. 231 00:27:18,170 --> 00:27:20,750 I went out looking for everything with Future's name in. 232 00:27:20,750 --> 00:27:31,070 But I also looked for everything and certain spans of dates, and in the course of this I found something as a scientist, which was very interesting. 233 00:27:31,070 --> 00:27:35,120 And then, as you will see, two completely different strands came together. 234 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:42,020 So I wanted to find out what was the science that was going on between 1946 and 1950. 235 00:27:42,020 --> 00:27:46,820 And that was why I was looking at everything I could find in the modelling piles, papers. 236 00:27:46,820 --> 00:27:48,770 And I found this very fascinating thing. 237 00:27:48,770 --> 00:28:00,830 In March, the 8th of March 1946, a letter to Rudi Pyles from John Thompson of Imperial College JP Thomson won the Nobel prise for physics. 238 00:28:00,830 --> 00:28:09,080 And he has. He has had the idea, which is key to what we now do down the road, a column of nuclear fusion. 239 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:16,400 And he's had a very deep insight. But before he goes public with it, he wants to check that he's not going to make a fool of himself. 240 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:22,550 So he wrote to Rudy Pyles to consult him. Dear piles. 241 00:28:22,550 --> 00:28:28,850 It's interesting how they wrote in those days, you know, you wrote your friends by their surnames, dear piles. 242 00:28:28,850 --> 00:28:32,780 I send you here with the manuscript in the hope that you will look through it. 243 00:28:32,780 --> 00:28:38,520 It contains some ideas and a generation of nuclear energy, blah blah blah. That is what we all know. 244 00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:45,420 Fusion to be today, that was not the reason why Thomson was excited or concerned. 245 00:28:45,420 --> 00:28:49,620 And I often wondered why it was that fusion was declared secret. 246 00:28:49,620 --> 00:28:53,640 I mean, what's the big deal there? The answer is, as well as producing energy, 247 00:28:53,640 --> 00:29:01,290 it produced neutrons and neutrons were the things that required to convert uranium into plutonium, to make bombs. 248 00:29:01,290 --> 00:29:08,580 And in 1946, they were building this huge nuclear reactor up in Cumbria wind scale. 249 00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:10,590 Well, Sellafield. 250 00:29:10,590 --> 00:29:20,820 To do that very thing, and Thompson's insight was that if you can make nuclear fusion, you could make the neutrons to make the plutonium much easier. 251 00:29:20,820 --> 00:29:26,250 He says it would be a formidable source of plutonium using very little uranium. 252 00:29:26,250 --> 00:29:34,950 That is why he has written to piles because of this possibility that he has a way of making the means to make bombs. 253 00:29:34,950 --> 00:29:38,730 8tH of March 1946. 254 00:29:38,730 --> 00:29:50,160 Totally unrelated to this 9th of March 46, a student named Jerry Gardner is writing to Rudolph Pyles, this student was at University of Southampton. 255 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:57,960 He wanted to join pilots at Birmingham to do a Ph.D., and he's arranged to come and see piles. 256 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:06,180 To that end, and indeed, Jerry Gardner in the visits, piles and you can go through the letters and correspondence, Pyle says. 257 00:30:06,180 --> 00:30:07,680 There are some interesting questions here. 258 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:13,500 I don't want secret work in my department, but I'm sure we'll be able to find some things for you to work on. 259 00:30:13,500 --> 00:30:24,110 And indeed, Jerry Gardner gets put to work on basically the idea that Thompson has just discussed with piles. 260 00:30:24,110 --> 00:30:30,320 Two months later, Fuchs returns from America and visits pile to the weekend. 261 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:34,800 Those papers aren't in the body and we don't know what was said, but you can guess. 262 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:42,750 Because it becomes clear then that Jerry Gardner goes and works at Harwell with Fuchs, and he writes his thesis. 263 00:30:42,750 --> 00:30:47,040 And in 1948, there's this lovely letter in the pyles papers here. 264 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:55,650 The registrar at the University of Birmingham is returning here with Please receive Dr. Faulkner's report on Jerry Gardner's thesis. 265 00:30:55,650 --> 00:31:03,120 So Gardner has done his thesis on this. Fuchs has been the person who's examined the thesis, and Gordon's got his degree. 266 00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:16,500 Wonderful. January 1950, shortly before Fuchs is arrested, Jerry Gardener writes a letter to Rudy Pyles full of concern. 267 00:31:16,500 --> 00:31:17,070 Dear Prof. 268 00:31:17,070 --> 00:31:25,560 Pyle's I have come across a Russian paper which appears to cover substantially the same ground as my thesis, which was published the year before. 269 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:30,480 It is clear that Fuchs had passed this information across there as well. 270 00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:36,990 In fact, the missing links on this Thompson's papers are in Trinity College Cambridge Library. 271 00:31:36,990 --> 00:31:41,550 And indeed, you can put the whole paper trail together. It was quite a fascinating thing, but it all started. 272 00:31:41,550 --> 00:31:54,410 It was the baldly done it so that poor old Jerry Gardner, he's there working in the theory group that Harwell is a total disaster. 273 00:31:54,410 --> 00:31:59,150 Fuchs is arrested and sent to jail. Fuchs is deputy, a man called Oscar. 274 00:31:59,150 --> 00:32:06,530 Boogieman is wanted to leave because his wife, Mary, is having an affair with a junior member called Brian Flowers, 275 00:32:06,530 --> 00:32:15,470 who some of you may know became Lord Flowers, the rector of Imperial College London, etc., etc. and Gerry Gardener not surprisingly, wants out. 276 00:32:15,470 --> 00:32:21,590 And so he then writes to Pyle's about leaving Harwell and piles, you know, offers to be a referee. 277 00:32:21,590 --> 00:32:28,190 Those of you who knew piles will be amused. This is typical Rudy piles in his response here. 278 00:32:28,190 --> 00:32:34,610 If you do decide to apply for anything, you can certainly give my names a reference, but certainly not that of Fuchs. 279 00:32:34,610 --> 00:32:44,510 I do not think many people will be broad minded enough to pay attention to a recommendation written in prison. 280 00:32:44,510 --> 00:32:51,170 So this is all being wise after the event. What did Rudy actually feel at the time of the arrest? 281 00:32:51,170 --> 00:33:01,610 I mean, this is where I want to now move towards the the personal elements of this things about when he was arrested. 282 00:33:01,610 --> 00:33:13,340 When shock at first, I refused to believe when the first news came out, the article first and I thought maybe this was somebody else. 283 00:33:13,340 --> 00:33:22,080 And then obviously the home then we thought made some sense that we all know this, 284 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:36,210 but I can't imagine things or have exactly put the importance of some level that took a long time for us, actually to convince ourselves. 285 00:33:36,210 --> 00:33:46,110 It was a total shock here is a person who has not just been your technical assistant and colleague for nine years, 286 00:33:46,110 --> 00:33:49,980 but has been living with you as a member of the family. 287 00:33:49,980 --> 00:33:57,240 We've seen how his his daughter testified to me this fact, the important role that played in the family. 288 00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:03,690 And now you discover that all along, he's been cheating, not just the nation, but you personally. 289 00:34:03,690 --> 00:34:11,720 And that was a huge shock. What I really now come to, though, is I say here a letter that changed history. 290 00:34:11,720 --> 00:34:15,860 It's on the visualiser as well. This is not the letter that change history. 291 00:34:15,860 --> 00:34:22,670 The letter that shows history is the letter that Jeneyah wrote to Klaus Fuchs in response in part to this. 292 00:34:22,670 --> 00:34:27,230 I'll tell you this the saga. So Phoenix is in jail. 293 00:34:27,230 --> 00:34:31,850 And if you start reading that letter, it is fascinating because you see that, he says. 294 00:34:31,850 --> 00:34:37,640 It was wonderful of Rudy to visit me on Saturday, although I couldn't do anything to cheer him up. 295 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:49,990 False humour. Do you mind if I talk of other things sometime I shall try and describe to you what went on in my mind? 296 00:34:49,990 --> 00:34:59,170 But you will have to wait for this. Then he says, I have been sitting here some time now trying to think when your letter arrives. 297 00:34:59,170 --> 00:35:08,760 So imagine stopping folks has written those first two paragraphs and then a letter from Jeneyah Pyles has arrived. 298 00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:13,620 And it is really not legible on here other than to show you that the great thing 299 00:35:13,620 --> 00:35:17,640 about the policies was that they kept copies of everything that they wrote. 300 00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:24,390 So you actually have a bit like sometimes you hear one half of a mobile telephone conversation. 301 00:35:24,390 --> 00:35:30,150 Well, you've got it all here. You've got the piles of outgoing letters. And here they are. 302 00:35:30,150 --> 00:35:38,340 But I will just read you some things from her letter, because this, I think, is perhaps one of the most remarkable letters that I have ever read. 303 00:35:38,340 --> 00:35:43,350 And the editor at Penguin said we had to have the complete letter on display. 304 00:35:43,350 --> 00:35:54,570 This is the letter basically that broke Krauss, Klaus Fuchs and as we turn over the page of Klaus Future's letter. 305 00:35:54,570 --> 00:35:59,700 And eventually, we will look at it. We can see the effect it had on him. 306 00:35:59,700 --> 00:36:06,990 So she's writing to him. I'm writing to you in front of our sitting room fire where we so often talked about so many things. 307 00:36:06,990 --> 00:36:11,040 This is a hard letter to write. Perhaps even a harder one to read. 308 00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:18,190 But you know me well enough not to expect me to mince my words. I'm taking it all much easier than everybody else, 309 00:36:18,190 --> 00:36:27,040 because my Russian childhood and youth taught me not to trust anybody and to expect anyone and everyone to be a communist agent. 310 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:32,830 Twenty years of freedom in England softened me, and I learnt to like and trust people or at any rate, 311 00:36:32,830 --> 00:36:37,780 some of them, I certainly did trust you even more. 312 00:36:37,780 --> 00:36:43,270 I considered you the most decent man. I knew I'd do that even now. 313 00:36:43,270 --> 00:36:48,270 That is the reason why I am writing to you. Do you imagine yourself as class folks now? 314 00:36:48,270 --> 00:36:52,680 I mean, you're in the ring being hit from both sides? 315 00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:58,440 Do you realise what will be the effect of your trial on scientists here in America, especially in America, 316 00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:04,110 where many of them are in difficulties with the McCarthy witch hunts, which were only then just beginning? 317 00:37:04,110 --> 00:37:08,790 Do you realise that they will be suspected not only by officials, but by their own friends? 318 00:37:08,790 --> 00:37:12,670 Because if you could, why not they? 319 00:37:12,670 --> 00:37:21,370 For your cause, you didn't have to be on such warm personal relations with them to play with their children and dance and drink and talk. 320 00:37:21,370 --> 00:37:28,750 You are such a quiet man you could have kept yourself much more aloof. You are enjoying the best of the world you were trying to destroy. 321 00:37:28,750 --> 00:37:40,460 It is not honest. He had sort of made out to Rudy Pyles when he visited him that he was not wanting to reveal any of his contacts because, 322 00:37:40,460 --> 00:37:44,540 you know, he didn't want to give any names away, that wasn't the sort of thing that was done. 323 00:37:44,540 --> 00:37:49,130 And she just has nothing to do with this clause. Don't be a child. 324 00:37:49,130 --> 00:37:53,180 This is the schoolboy code of honour. Impressions don't matter. 325 00:37:53,180 --> 00:37:57,380 You personally do not matter. The issues are too important for that. 326 00:37:57,380 --> 00:38:02,510 And you know it. Otherwise, you would have taken the easy way out to take your life. 327 00:38:02,510 --> 00:38:07,460 Thank you for not doing that. You could not leave all this terrible mess for others to sort out. 328 00:38:07,460 --> 00:38:13,520 This is your job class. Then she ends, Oh class, my tears are washing away the ink. 329 00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:17,360 I was so very fond of you, and I so much wanted you to be happy. 330 00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:22,890 And now you never will be. So Klaus Fuchs has received that letter. 331 00:38:22,890 --> 00:38:28,350 And then he continues writing his letter from the third paragraph on. 332 00:38:28,350 --> 00:38:37,020 And I just highlight at the very end, he writes this sort of piece and sorry, I haven't got anybody to type this for me. 333 00:38:37,020 --> 00:38:44,040 I hope you can read it. And don't worry if you don't see the tears, I have learnt to cry again and to love again. 334 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:54,090 OK for class. And the next thing that he did was then he contacted me five people and gave them the information about his Russian contacts in America. 335 00:38:54,090 --> 00:39:00,300 Carefully people who he knew were already either out of reach and so forth. 336 00:39:00,300 --> 00:39:07,980 But nonetheless, uh, Jenny Paul's letter, I think, had a huge effect upon the course of history and classes. 337 00:39:07,980 --> 00:39:12,800 Original is here in the modelling, and you can look at it on the visualiser afterwards. 338 00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:16,670 So moving towards the end, you know, what happens next? 339 00:39:16,670 --> 00:39:21,860 Well, the fallout for this whole business, if that's the right metaphor, we're sort of very interesting. 340 00:39:21,860 --> 00:39:31,190 It turns out the class folks had been nominated for Fellowship of the Royal Society by Rudy Pyles, and immediately they withdrew the nomination. 341 00:39:31,190 --> 00:39:37,250 As you can see, see up there, uh, as you know, I proposed last year Dr. Kay Folks for election to fellowship. 342 00:39:37,250 --> 00:39:42,740 The proposal was seconded by Dr. Sir John Cockcroft in view of what has happened since then. 343 00:39:42,740 --> 00:39:48,590 I feel I should now withdraw the proposal. I have no reason for changing my opinion of the scientific qualifications. 344 00:39:48,590 --> 00:39:52,400 But the statement, which forms part of our certificates that, in our view, 345 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:58,820 he deserves the honour of being elected a fellow can no longer be maintained and the sector of the Law Society says many thanks. 346 00:39:58,820 --> 00:40:05,900 Steps to withdraw the certificate will be taken at once, so that was the end of Faulkner's fellowship. 347 00:40:05,900 --> 00:40:14,540 The next letter amongst many that are there on the file of people writing to piles after Fukuda's arrest really brought home to me as a scientist, 348 00:40:14,540 --> 00:40:22,040 how loved Fuchs was in the scientific community and how shocked everybody was and how much they 349 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:28,850 realise that the pyles family in particular had been completely undermined by what had happened. 350 00:40:28,850 --> 00:40:38,450 The letter I'm now going to show you is from Bill Penny, who was in charge of the British Atomic Bomb Project, a project that was totally secret. 351 00:40:38,450 --> 00:40:47,840 Only a handful of people knew about it, let alone the fact that Klaus Fuchs was in secret the consultants to penny on the British atomic bomb. 352 00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:52,160 The British atomic bomb was completely an open book in Moscow, thanks to Fuchs. 353 00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:58,530 Anyway, Bill Penny is now writing to piles, and I just wanted to bring out the facts. 354 00:40:58,530 --> 00:41:08,240 You know, this was the era I said where you wrote your dear piles, dear piles and look at this letter, my dear Rudolph. 355 00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:13,600 This is that speaks volumes on this occasion. Um. 356 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:18,520 This nasty business is now over, and I hope that the effects will not last too long. 357 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:25,120 I thought I would like to send you a short note saying something which I find very difficult to express. 358 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:31,780 What I am afraid is that the effect of one man's mistakes may smear others. 359 00:41:31,780 --> 00:41:35,170 You can rely on me to do everything that I can to prevent that happening. 360 00:41:35,170 --> 00:41:40,120 Best wishes to Jenny. Sorry, I know that that is the wrong spelling. In fact, Rudolph is felt wrong as well. 361 00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:44,500 It should be, if not all the left on the right is just there for interest. 362 00:41:44,500 --> 00:41:49,450 In 1950 to Britain eventually exploded its own atomic bomb. 363 00:41:49,450 --> 00:41:58,030 The design being the one that Fuchs has helped them make was the very same design that the Russians use because folks shared it with everybody. 364 00:41:58,030 --> 00:42:02,860 And this enigma letter from Bill Penney is that the bomb has been tested. 365 00:42:02,860 --> 00:42:06,640 Tiles is written and congratulated. I am very pleased to get your letter. 366 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:13,060 Everything went well, and we have some most interesting results. If you know what this is about, it is about, if you don't, you don't. 367 00:42:13,060 --> 00:42:19,870 That was very nice. So I will come to the end with the tragedy of all of this. 368 00:42:19,870 --> 00:42:25,750 Fuchs is arrested. He sent to jail for 14 years, is released in 1959 after nine years for good behaviour. 369 00:42:25,750 --> 00:42:33,760 Rudy Pyles is alerted to the fact that Fuchs is about to be released, and he sends him a letter. 370 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:37,240 And indeed, we've got the carbon copy on the front table. 371 00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:44,380 The A-Class I see from the papers, you are soon going to be released if you need any help in getting started in life, 372 00:42:44,380 --> 00:42:48,040 financial or otherwise, or if you need advice, please let me know. 373 00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:55,000 I will do what I can. You often see piles. There was no response. 374 00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:59,710 There was no contact between folks and the piles, as for the rest of either of their lives. 375 00:42:59,710 --> 00:43:03,790 Folks maintain contact with some of the other scientists in the UK, 376 00:43:03,790 --> 00:43:12,370 even with the high level security officer who had been instrumental in his exposure and arrest, but he was unable to maintain contact with the pilot. 377 00:43:12,370 --> 00:43:18,610 And I think this is the nearest we get to really understanding the effect of Jenny's letter. 378 00:43:18,610 --> 00:43:23,650 That was the moment when folks felt shame. And I think he could not face the piles. 379 00:43:23,650 --> 00:43:27,700 And I think this is a real tragedy. There was no contact for the rest of their lives. 380 00:43:27,700 --> 00:43:32,530 Klaus Fuchs lived in East Germany. He died in 1988. Junior died in 86. 381 00:43:32,530 --> 00:43:38,890 Rudy in 1995. Rudy lived to his beyond his 80th birthday, 382 00:43:38,890 --> 00:43:46,000 I thought I would end with one other little note that I found in the body in here we could have slipped by, 383 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:51,080 but it seemed rather appropriate for today. I mentioned Brian Flowers. 384 00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:55,310 He was the very junior member of the theory group at Harwell. 385 00:43:55,310 --> 00:43:59,810 He eventually became fuU successor as the head of the theory group at Harwell, 386 00:43:59,810 --> 00:44:06,140 and it was quite ironic that they spent two years before they would make the decision who who was going to be the successor of folks. 387 00:44:06,140 --> 00:44:10,370 Given all of that happened, it had to be somebody who was beyond reproach. 388 00:44:10,370 --> 00:44:19,500 And the newspapers were very happy because they pointed out that clearly Brian Flowers is beyond reproach because his father was a parson. 389 00:44:19,500 --> 00:44:24,990 The fact that Felix's father had been a parson was not noticed. 390 00:44:24,990 --> 00:44:29,280 Anyway, it was Brian Flowers had a stellar career. 391 00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:35,480 It is also ironic and as I say in the book here, if folks had kept his mouth shut and not confessed. 392 00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:41,360 We would never have known any of this because the only evidence they had against him was the cracked Russian codes. 393 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:44,540 That was such a sensitive secret you could never be used. 394 00:44:44,540 --> 00:44:51,970 They had to catch folks in the act of spying or have him confess, and he confessed if he hadn't confessed. 395 00:44:51,970 --> 00:44:56,530 He would have become a fellow of the Royal Society, he would become the chief scientist at Harwell, 396 00:44:56,530 --> 00:45:05,440 he would have become the father of the British atomic and hydrogen bombs. He would be in the House of Lords, along with Jeffrey Archer and others. 397 00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:09,190 But he wasn't brought flowers, of course, within the House of Lords. 398 00:45:09,190 --> 00:45:18,940 And Brian married Mary, the former wife of As Deputy Brian and Mary became great friends, as always with the piles. 399 00:45:18,940 --> 00:45:25,240 And there's this delightful note sent to piles on his 80th birthday. 400 00:45:25,240 --> 00:45:36,610 At four school years, one should not think about the dishes in the sink or when to start up a machine which may be full before they're clean. 401 00:45:36,610 --> 00:45:43,470 Away with all such foolish doubt, just lick some plates and throw it out. 402 00:45:43,470 --> 00:45:51,630 But should these not prove taxing tests, throw a party for eight guests with love from Brian and Mary. 403 00:45:51,630 --> 00:46:04,057 Happy Birthday! So there it all is. Thank you very much for this.