Category Archives: A few of my favourite things

A few of my favourite things V: a gift from ‘the Polish Teachers in Uniform’

My favourite item from all the collections I have worked with in the past 10 months is a beautiful album in the Moray House collection.  The album was made for Thomson by the ‘Polish Students in Uniform’.  This initiative was likely very similar to the Polish School of Medicine, set up in the University of Edinburgh during World War II with the aim of training Polish students and doctors in the armed forces (almost immediately, civilian students too were accepted).  Students were trained in Polish, and could obtain Polish degrees.

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Images from an album gifted to Thomson by the ‘Polish Students in Uniform’, Moray House archive (notice the ‘Scottish flowers’ on the left!)

The album itself is a beautiful object – the colours, the drawings, even the positioning of the photographs.  For me, however, what really makes this object wonderful is the informality of it, the spontaneous photographs and the witty captions combine to make it, in contrast to the formal staff and student photographs, a real snapshot of life at Moray House as the students knew it.

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A close up of Thomson from the album

Following German and Soviet occupation, hundreds of thousands of Polish people were deported from their home country – many of the students trained at the Polish School of Medicine would never return.  At such a time of sadness, upheaval, and uncertainty for the students, it is wonderful that, nonetheless, they took the time to thank Thomson for his kindness in such a thoughtful way.

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Staff and students at Moray House

It is likely that Thomson’s work with the ‘Polish Students in Uniform’ is the reason that, on the 13th June, 1944, he was awarded the declaration of the Third Class of the Order of Polonia Restituta.  The order was conferred by the President of the Polish republic in recognition of his services to Polish interests during the war.  The geneticist Francis Crew also had the award bestowed on him.

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Thomson’s certificate for the award – his cross has sadly not survived in the collection

Roughly translated, the Polonia Restituta is ‘Order of Rebirth of Poland‘.  It is generally awarded, and has been since 1921, for outstanding contributions to education, science, sport, culture, art, economics, national defence, social work, civil service or diplomacy.  The vast majority of those awarded are naturally given to Polish nationals.  Thomson’s award also came along with a letter from Anthony Eden (well, at least his secretary!) and an honorary membership card for the Association of Polish Teachers in Great Britain.

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Letter from Sir Anthony Eden confirming that King George has given his permission for Thomson to wear the cross

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Thomson’s honorary membership for the Association of Polish Teachers in Great Britain

Thomson has often proved an illusive character to those researching his history – in oral testimonies from those he worked with or who studied under he has in turn been described as reserved, friendly, quick tempered, even tempered, etc.!  But objects such as the photograph album, as well as the many letters sent to Thomson’s widow by his students, show that his students were very much at the heart of what he did.

With many thanks to Ela Wiklo for information about the Polonia Restituta.

A few of my favourite [festive!] things

At the start of the festive period, I had the best of intentions to post a festive blog post for every day of advent.  Alas, there isn’t much mention of Christmas in Thomson’s papers – even his family photo albums are a decidedly festive free zone!  However, having three working days left until we break up for the festive period, I thought I would share (you’ve guessed it!) three festive items from the collection…

1) Christmas card to Thomson from his students…

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Christmas Card inside

Quite possibly the best Christmas card I’ve ever come across – spelling ‘Christmas’ in mathematical terms.  Genius!  And if that wasn’t zany enough, there is a wonderfully nebulous poem on the inside!

In all seriousness, this is one of my favourite items in the collection – it is signed by 13 of Thomson’s students, who were obviously very fond of him, and I bet the master of Factorial Analysis loved it!

 

2) Christmas card from Andromache

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Andromache was the wife of Thomson’s son, Hector.  Hector was a classicist, so the mythical love story of Hector and Andromache would have been one familiar to him.  She is a frequent character in the collection, and is mentioned throughout Thomson’s correspondence by friends and family – Thomson and Lady Thomson appear to have been particularly fond of her.  The card depicts her native Cyprus.

3) A Christmas gift from Lady Thomson:

Christmas book

 

Christmas message

The gift is a thoughtful one – Thomson was brought up near Newcastle, and the sights in this book would have been familiar to him.  The book has clearly been well loved and frequently referred to, and has some beautiful images of Newcastle.

Holy Jesus Hospital Surtees

With that, I’d like to wish you all a lovely Christmas and a productive New Year!

If anyone recognises their signature or that of anyone else’s on the card, do please get in touch (Emma.Anthony@ed.ac.uk)

 

‘Who is that chap with the terrific head?!’

Robert Heriot Westwater’s most famous portrait is probably that of Christopher Murray Grieve (more widely known by his nom de plume,  Hugh McDiarmid!).  But Westwater also painted two very different portraits of Sir Godfrey Thomson in honour of his retirement in 1951:

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Formal presentation of Thomson’s portrait at Moray House, 1951, with Lady Thomson on the right

Westwater’s first encounter with Thomson was as a student training as a teacher of art at Moray House:

I remember very clearly my first sight of Professor Thomson as he passed a group of us students in the corridor.  “Who”, I demanded, “Who is that chap with the terrific head?”.  For the rest of my course at the training college I vainly tried to screw up courage to approach him – the art students, alas, had no class under him – to ask him if he would sit for me.  But I never quite succeeded.  And in the intervening years I lamented this somewhat uncharacteristic lack of “brass neck”

Moray House Magazine, March 1951

Westwater was delighted several years later on being commissioned to paint the-chap-with-the-terrific-head’s portrait!  The main portrait was to be a formal one in the striking red and white academic dress of the University of Durham DSc:

Thomson's formal portrait by Westwater

Westwater had some concern with regards to Thomson’s clothing outshining him in the painting:

With most other sitters such a garb would almost inevitably lead to a “portrait of robes with head attached.”  But in Godfrey’s case, not so.  When he arranged himself in the chair set ready, with complete dignity and composure, it was obvious at once that even such a gown could not compete.  The “terrific head” easily subdued it to its proper and subordinate place. 

Moray House Magazine, March 1951

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Page with Thomson’s photograph from the Moray House Magazine, 1950

Westwater commented on the many and varied conversations he and Thomson had during Thomson’s sittings, informing the reader that they were even prone to a sing song now and again (Thomson’s secretary and students were quite used to him playing, singing, and humming Gilbert and Sullivan whenever the notion took him!).  But my favourite passage by far is when Westwater gets rather verbose for his own good and waxes lyrical about the shape of Thomson’s head!:

The very bone structure of his skull begins the puzzle, for it is at once positive, virile, and yet almost frail in its delicacy.  The eyes have an imperious authority and penetration, but the mouth under the forceful nose astonishes by its nearly feminine gentleness.  it would be easy to cite another score of complexities, more subtle and more difficult from the painters point of view.

Moray House Magazine, March 1951

Quite!  Westwater’s second portrait of Thomson was more informal, and was Thomson’s gift from Moray House :

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This remained with the Thomson family for many years after Thomson’s death, eventually being donated to the University.  Ever keen to see paintings around the university rather than in store, we are delighted that Thomson now hangs proud in the office of his greatest advocator!  He is frequently seen and admired by a host of students and visitors.

Westwater clearly enjoyed painting Thomson, and likely he and Thomson would derive great pleasure from knowing his other portrait hangs in Moray House to to this day, reminding everyone, as Westwater put it, ‘of he whom they and I will always think of from different angles as “A Terrific Head”‘!

A few of my favourite things…III

In his mid 20s, Thomson found himself studying for a PhD under the formidable talents of Nobel Prize winining physicist, Karl Ferdinand Braun, at the University of Strasburg.  Today’s object is from this period, and likely held a great deal of sentimental value to Thomson:

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Thomson’s watch fob

The watch fob bears the initials of Thomson’s student ‘verein’ or club, the M.N.St.V, (the mathematical and natural science student verein), which he described as a humble version of the expensive ‘Burschenschaften’, elite student clubs which exist to this day and often involve duals (or Mensur):

In the Mensur…the fighters are protected by goggles and nose-piece, by mattress-like chest and arm protection, must not move or flinch, hold the straight pointed rapiers above the head, touching and at the word…strike at each other’s head and faces.  Two seconds crouch with drawn swords and at the first touch they strike up the combatant’s swords.  this is repeated until the referee gives a decision, or for a given number of rounds.  Often one man gets all the cuts, and the other none.  they are mostly on the head, but also on the forehead and cheek and chin, a ‘Durch-zieher’ cutting across both cheeks almost horizontally.  Then senior medical students give hasty and not very sterile assistance and stitchings, and the heroes drink beer and swagger (if well enough) through the next few days.

The Education of an Englishman, p.53

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Physikalisches Institut, Strasburg, March 1906

The scarring resulting from the dual was, and is, seen as a badge of honour, and students often deliberately irritated the wound, packing it to ensure it was widened.  In Thomson’s humbler club, duals were rare and usually in response to an insult or wrong doing.  No uniforms were required, but members wore a watch fob with the verein’s arms.  Thomson’s Leibbursch*, Carl Andriessen (whose name is engraved on the watch fob with Thomson’s) gave him his.

After World War I, Thomson lost contact with many of his German friends, many of whom were killed or missing.  However, the inscription of one book in his collection, Das Deutschland Buch, shows he kept in touch with Andriessen:

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Inscription from Das Deutschland-Buch

The book is inscribed with a message to Thomson and his wife Jennie, thanking them for their hospitality, and dated June 1931 – 25 years after Thomson left Strasburg.  The more fluent among you might notice he refers to them as ‘Aunt’ and ‘Uncle’, which made me wonder if the giver was in fact Andriessen’s son, though he refers to them as old friends, which would suggest otherwise.  It contains many beautiful images of Germany, a country Thomson loved his whole life, despite the ravages of two World Wars:

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I found the book rather touching – despite the remaining animosity of their prospective nations after World War I, the two clearly have a strong friendship, and Andriessen is able to give Thomson a book about the beauty of his own country, a country Thomson also loved.

For Thomson, the time he spent in Strasburg was one of the happiest periods of his life.  It allowed him to indulge in his passion for research, undertaking intensive work on Herzian waves. His German became fluent, and he immersed himself in German culture.  The watch fob, which he treasured for all those years, perhaps served as the perfect reminder of his life there, and a reminder of enduring friendship.

*’A second year student who adopts a freshman, shows him the ropes, and can claim services in return’

With many thanks to Sarah Noble, LHSA Conservation Intern, who patiently spent a morning showing me how to make bespoke museum boxes and made the lovely box for Thomson’s watch fob!

A few of my favourite things…II

In the next instalment of interesting objects (chosen solely on the discerning basis that I rather like them!) are these intelligence testing blocks from the Godfrey Thomson unit:

TestingBlocksTesting blocks were (and are) used in several intelligence tests, including the WAIS intelligence tests and Wechsler tests.  The individual is presented with the blocks and cards with patterns on them, and tasked with replicating the patterns with the blocks against a timer.  This measures spacial ability.

Sadly, the accompanying cards have not survived (though this is perhaps just as well, since they would have resulted in procrastination en masse here in the archives!).

However, purely for entertainment purposes are the following teasers for you to try your hand at:

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test4Enjoy!*

* Before embarking on this endeavour, the reader is advised that we do not have the answers!

A few of my favourite things…

Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at some of the fascinating objects associated with Thomson.

Today’s object of choice is this mechanical calculating machine, manufactured by Swedish company, Facit.  The calculator was used in ‘Room 70’, Thomson’s intelligence testing unit.

‘Room 70’ was described by one former employee as quiet, happy, and industrious – perhaps with the rattle of this calculator occasionally breaking the silence!

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The machine was operated by hand, and was the first Facit keyboard-set pinwheel calculator, produced between 1932-1939.  It is part of Albert E G Pilliner’s collection.

Pilliner was a chemist by trade – throughout the Second World War he worked for a government research facility using his statistical knowledge and experience to evaluate the effectiveness of explosives. It was here Pilliner met William Emmett, who worked closely with Thomson.

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After the war, Pilliner taught Chemistry and Physics, taking up a post as lecturer at Moray House College of Education. Following Thomson’s retirement in 1951, Pilliner and his colleagues continued his work, with Pilliner taking charge of the unit, which formally became the Godfrey Thomson Unit in 1965.

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By the 1970s, much of Pilliner’s time was taken up working as a consultant to the British Council and UNESCO amongst others, conducting research into the examination systems of countries including Mauritius, Pakistan, and Malaysia.  His collection contains many of the reports he produced throughout this period.  He died in 2003.

With thanks to Emma Smith for providing the photographs