James Chadwick

In August 1925, James Chadwick married Aileen Stewart-Brown, the daughter of a Liverpool stockbroker. The couple had twin daughters Joanna and Judith, born in 1927. Gardening and fishing were two of his favorite hobbies.

Chadwick passed away in sleep on 24 July 1974, at the age of 82, in Cambridge, England.

The Chadwick Laboratory at the University of Liverpool has been named after him. In 1991, Sir James Chadwick Chair of Experimental Physics was established as part of centenary celebration of his birth. He also has a crater on the moon in his name.

James Chadwick was born on 20 October 1891, in Bollington, Cheshire. His father, John Joseph, was a cotton spinner while his mother, Anne Mary Knowles, was a domestic servant. He had two younger brothers, Harry and Hubert, and a younger sister, who died in infancy.

In 1895, his parents moved to Manchester, leaving him in the care of his grandparents. He started his education at Bollington Cross Primary School. He was a brilliant student from the beginning and was offered a scholarship for Manchester Grammar School.

Unfortunately, James was still required to pay a percentage of the fees there, which his parents could not afford and so had to turn down the offer. Instead, he joined Manchester Central Boys’ High School, now known as Manchester Academy.

He joined University of Manchester in 1908 and mistakenly enrolled in physics; he wanted to study mathematics. Nonetheless, he did so well that by the end of the first year, he was awarded Heginbottom scholarship.

At that time, the physics department was headed by Professor Ernest Rutherford, who later came to be known as ‘Father of Nuclear Physics’. He was much impressed by young James Chadwick and assigned him the task of devising a means of comparing the amount of radioactive energy of two different sources, which he accomplished quite successfully.

In 1921, James Chadwick was elected as a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College and served in that capacity until 1935. Two years later in 1923, he was appointed as an Assistant Director of Research at Cavendish Laboratory where Rutherford was the Director. Again in 1927, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1932, while still working at Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, he made an important discovery. He proved the existence of neutron, which could be used as a new tool of atomic disintegration and later paved the way for the creation of atomic bombs.

Chadwick remained at the University of Cambridge until 1935. In the same year in May he received an offer from the University of Liverpool. There he was elected to the Lyon Jones Chair of Physics and assumed the position on October 1, 1935.

He then set out improve the infrastructure at the university. As the total cost of the renovation was more than what was received as grant he paid the rest from his own pocket, using the money he had received as Nobel Prize that very year.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, he was holidaying with his family in northern Sweden. He promptly came back to England using whatever means he could and promptly joined his duty.

Discovery of neutron is Chadwick’s greatest work. It not only contributed to the better understanding of nucleus, but also paved the way towards the fission of Uranium 235, which ultimately led to the creation of the atomic bomb.

Through his researches Chadwick established that neutron is an elementary particle that does not contain electrical charge and therefore unlike helium, it does not need to overcome any electric barrier. It is therefore capable of penetrating as well as splitting the nuclei of even the heaviest atoms.