SIR CHARLES DRUMMOND ELLIS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 03/21/1951 - HFSID 201408

SIR CHARLES DRUMMOND ELLIS
Physicist Sir Charles Drummond Ellis wrote this letter on National Coal Board letterhead in 1951. In it, he thanks the recipient for a book and commiserates with him over the sorry state of England. Ellis was knighted for his work on a British atomic bomb during World War II.
Autograph letter signed "Charles Ellis" in blue ink. Lead pencil and blue ink notations on page 1, both in unknown hand. 2 pages, 6¾x8¾, one sheet, front and verso, on letterhead of the National Coal Board. March 21, 1951. In full: "My dear Sayer I think your History of Army Radar is really fun, it is not only informative but really readable. I at one spent three quarters of an hour, without meaning to, browsing through it with great enjoyment. I think you have somehow reproduced [illegible] spent of the war years ,that curious union of [illegible] & application that I recall with great pleasure. This job is absorbing and [illegible] of work at too long hours. That is a mistake &not a think to be proud of, but it is so difficult in a new shoe, & it will take 20 years to absorb the effects of nationalisation, not to bounce from crisis to crisis. It was very nice to hear from you but I echo your apprehension where the current events are leading us , bankruptcy or war seems to be the choice Thank you so much for giving me a copy of your book, I feel very privileged when [illegible] must be so many classmates for remembrance Wish all my good wishes Yours very sincerely".British physicist Ellis (1895-1980) was a member of England's Military Application of Uranium Detonation (MAUD) Committee during World War II, which was part of the English effort to build an atomic bomb before the English effort was subsumed into the American Manhattan Project. Ellis was knighted for his work on the MAUD Committee in 1946. During World War I, Ellis was captured while on holiday in Germany and held in the Ruhleben prisoner-of-war camp. One of his fellow detainees was future Nobel Prize winner James Chadwick, and the two reportedly set up a scientific laboratory in one of Ruhleben's horse stables to carry our scientific experiments. He gave up a career in the military after the war and, after graduating from as Cambridge University, was employed with Chadwick at Cavendish Laboratory under Sir Ernest Rutherford, where he studied beta radiation and decay. He later became a professor at King's College in London and, after World War II, held various positions unrelated to nuclear weapons. Lightly toned and creased. Show-through from blue ink notations on page 2, which touches body of letter but not signature. Folded in quarters and unfolded. Folds are lightly discolored on page 2. Otherwise in fine condition.