Talk:William Penney, Baron Penney

Popular culture
Penney is mentioned in a Flanders and Swann verse from 1953 Seven Ages of Woman My boy's a nuclear physicist, Helps Sir William Penny down at Harwell, My boy's a nuclear physicist, Making his atomic pile, He's just an ordinary fellow, He disintegrated Montebello And when the lights are low, There's more that Uranium in his cranium, It might ruin the tenor of the article to add it under the legacy and honours section, but it is quite an accolade; not many scientists today or their areas of research are sufficiently well known by the general public to be used in comic songs. What do you think? JBel (talk) 09:49, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Physique
Does anyone know how tall Penney was? Also, is his height mentioned in any reference material? 149.171.155.141 (talk) 03:10, 3 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I worked with him in 1957-8 and remember him as being about 6ft. (the same height as me in those days) Oldfarm (talk) 22:03, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Death of Wife in WWII due to German action
There is no mention of the loss of his first wife in London under German bombing during WWII. I would have thought this rather relevant, esp. as he did predictions for bomb damage for the Manhattan project  Perhaps not as assumed  - have recently found this in an Obit written by the Royal society  for WP

In 1935 Bill married Adele Minnie Elms, a very pretty and charming university student from Kent. They had two sons, but sadly she never recovered from post-natal depression after the birth of the second son, and she died in April 1945, while Bill was in Los Alamos. He returned only briefly and arranged for Joan Quennell, who had nursed the younger son, to look after the two boys. She took them to Wales, and on his return in September 1945, Bill married her.

(Not really clear how Adele Elms died but the bit about depression does make you wonder ...)

.TimFid (talk) 00:15, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

Children
Just two boys, Christopher and Martin? They were interviewed in this programme, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00825mh

Mr Jolly (talk) 21:27, 17 May 2019 (UTC)