Description:

Chadwick James



James Chadwick, Neutron Discoverer, to L. Groves Re: Awards from Queen Elizabeth & Harry Truman

 

“I had two rewards for which I shall always be grateful.”

 

JAMES CHADWICK, Autograph Letter Signed, to Leslie R. Groves Jr., January 16, 1970, Cambridge, England. 2 pp., 8" x 10". Very good.

 

Excerpts

“It was most kind of you to write and to send me the congratulations of yourself and Mrs Groves on the award of the C. H. It was a great surprise when I heard from the Prime Minister that he proposed to recommend me to H.M. the Queen for this award. I had thought I had long passed the age for anything of this kind.”

 

“It may be, as you say, that my services during the war were not recognized here; not many knew what was happening, some of these did not appreciate the position and some were not at all pleased with me. That caused me no great concern either then or later.”

 

“But I had two rewards for which I shall always be grateful. First, I would put your trust and friendship; and, secondly, the award of the Medal for Merit by President Truman, presented to me by you.”

 

Historical Background

In the Queen’s New Year’s Honors for 1970, James Chadwick became a Companion of Honour for his services to science.

 

The Medal for Merit was awarded by the President of the United States to civilians for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services” during and after World War II. It was awarded to individuals between 1944 and 1952. James Chadwick received the award in 1946 and was one of the few civilians of foreign nations who received the award.

 

 

James Chadwick (1891-1974) was born in England and graduated from the University of Manchester in 1911. He received further education in Germany but was placed in an internment camp during World War I, where he continued his experiments. He received a Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1921. In 1932, he discovered the neutron, for which he won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics. During World War II, Chadwick wrote the report that inspired the U.S. government to develop an atomic bomb. He carried out research as part of the Tube Alloys project to build an atomic bomb. After the Quebec Agreement of August 1943 merged the American and British atomic bomb research, Chadwick led the British team on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos and Washington, D.C. After the war, he served as the British scientific adviser to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. From 1948 to 1958, he served as Master of Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge.

 

Leslie R. Groves Jr. (1896-1970) was a United States Army General with the Corps of Engineers who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. Born in New York to a Protestant pastor who became an army chaplain, Groves graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1918 in a course shortened because of World War I. He entered the Corps of Engineers and gained promotions to major by 1940. In 1941, he was charged with overseeing the construction of the Pentagon, the largest office building in the world, with more than five million square feet. Disappointed that he had not received a combat assignment, Groves instead took charge of the Manhattan Project, designed to develop an atomic bomb. He continued nominally to supervise the Pentagon project to avoid suspicion, gained promotion to brigadier general, and began his work in September 1942. The project headquarters was initially in the War Department building in Washington, but in August 1943, moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer selected the site in Los Alamos, New Mexico, for a laboratory, and Groves pushed successfully for Oppenheimer to be placed in charge. Groves was in charge of obtaining critical uranium ores internationally and collecting military intelligence on Axis atomic research. Promoted to major general in March 1944, Groves received the Distinguished Service Medal for his work on the Manhattan Project after the war. In 1947, Groves became chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. He received a promotion to lieutenant general in January 1948, just days before meeting with Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower, who reviewed a long list of complaints against Groves. Assured that he would not become Chief of Engineers, Groves retired in February 1948. From 1948 to 1961, he was a vice president of Sperry Rand, an equipment and electronics firm. After retirement, he served as president of the West Point alumni association and wrote a book on the Manhattan Project, published in 1962.

 

 

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