Margaret Gowing facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Margaret Gowing
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Gowing as a student at LSE
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Margaret Mary Elliott
26 April 1921 Kensington, London, England
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| Died | 7 November 1998 (aged 77) Kingston upon Thames, London, England
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| Known for | History of the UK nuclear weapons programme |
| Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society (1988) Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1981) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Historian of Science |
| Institutions | Ministry of Supply Cabinet Office United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority University of Kent University of Oxford – Linacre College |
Margaret Mary Gowing (born Elliott), CBE, FBA, FRS (26 April 1921 – 7 November 1998) was an important English historian. She is best known for writing detailed books about how Britain developed its nuclear weapons program. These books were requested by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Her most famous works are Britain and Atomic Energy 1939–1945 (published in 1964) and the two-volume Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy 1945–52 (published in 1974).
Because she worked in the Cabinet Office from 1945 to 1959, she met many important people involved in these projects. As a historian and archivist for the UK Atomic Energy Authority from 1959 to 1966, she had special access to secret government files. This helped her write very accurate histories. Later, she became the very first professor of the history of science at the famous University of Oxford in 1972, holding the position until she retired in 1986. She also helped start a center to save important scientific papers, making sure future historians could learn from them.
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Growing Up and Education
Margaret Elliott was born on 26 April 1921 in Kensington, London. She was the youngest of three children. Her father, Ronald Elliott, was a motor engineer, and her mother, Mabel Donaldson, was a school teacher. Margaret had an older sister, Audrey, and an older brother, Donald.
Her family faced tough times because her father was often sick and couldn't work. Her mother was not allowed to work as a teacher after she got married. This meant the family often had very little money. For fun, they would visit free places like art galleries, museums, and libraries. Experiencing poverty made Margaret a strong believer in socialism later in her life.
She went to Portobello Elementary School in North Kensington. In 1932, she won a scholarship from the London County Council to attend Christ's Hospital, a special school. Margaret was an excellent student, became a prefect (a student leader), and played hockey for her house team.
In 1936, Margaret finished her School Certificate, doing very well in Latin, English, and French. She then won a scholarship to the London School of Economics (LSE) and started there in 1938. Her first advisor thought she was very good at economic history. Margaret later said that lectures by Eileen Power made her want to become an academic. She won two awards for economic history in 1939. When World War II started that year, the LSE moved to Oxford. Margaret graduated in 1941 with a top degree in economics.
Working for the Government
After graduating in 1941, it was hard to find academic jobs in history. So, Margaret joined the Civil Service, which is the government's administrative branch. She first worked in a section dealing with prices and statistics for iron and steel. She then moved to other government departments, eventually reaching the rank of Assistant Principal.
In 1945, she joined the Cabinet Office. Here, she helped with the official History of the Second World War. She worked as an assistant to Keith Hancock, who was the main editor for the civilian part of this history. As an official historian, Margaret Gowing had access to secret government papers and files. She got to know many important politicians and senior civil servants personally.
On 7 June 1944, Margaret married Donald James Graham Gowing. He was a singer who had also attended Christ's Hospital. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1941 and served overseas as a translator. At that time, married women were often not allowed to work in the Civil Service, but this rule was paused during the war, so Margaret could keep her job. They had two sons: Nicholas Keith (Nik), who became a journalist, born in 1951, and James, born in 1954.
In 1950, Sir Norman Brook tried to keep Margaret as the permanent historian in the Cabinet Office. However, this was not allowed by other government departments. In 1951, she was told she couldn't be promoted to a position that would give her retirement benefits. She later said her time at the Cabinet Office was the happiest of her life, but she started looking for other jobs. Sir Norman found ways for her to stay, but he couldn't offer her a pension.
The Public Records Act 1958 required government departments to set up archives. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) decided to follow this act even though they didn't have to. This created a new job for a historian and archivist at the UKAEA. Margaret Gowing applied and got the job in 1959. Her role was to organize and select important scientific and administrative records for preservation. She also had to write the history of the British atomic project, which started in 1939.
At this time, the UKAEA had about 40,000 employees across Britain. Margaret knew very little about atomic energy at first. She once joked that she "didn't know an atom from a molecule" when she started. But she quickly learned and earned the respect of important scientists like Sir Christopher Hinton and Sir James Chadwick. She also became friends with Nicholas Kurti, Sir Rudolf Peierls, and Niels Bohr. She once heard Sir James Chadwick say he planned to burn old documents in his attic. Moments like these made her realize how important it was to save scientific records. This led her to help create the Centre for Scientific Archives in 1972.
Margaret Gowing's first book, Britain and Atomic Energy 1939–1945, was published in 1964. It was highly praised. One expert said it was "No better example of contemporary narrative history of science has yet appeared." This book encouraged other countries to hire historians for their scientific projects.
Life in Academia
In 1966, Margaret Gowing became a Reader (a type of professor) in Contemporary History at the new University of Kent in Canterbury. She taught about scientific, technical, economic, and social history. The UKAEA kept her as a consultant, paying her to continue writing. Her main job was to write a two-volume follow-up to her first book, covering the period from 1945 to 1952.
To help her, the UKAEA brought in Lorna Arnold in 1967 to be her assistant historian. Even though they were official historians, they couldn't take their notes away from the Atomic Weapons Establishment. So, they had to write on-site, under supervision. Margaret had to travel a long way each day by train and car to get there.
Margaret tried to get better working conditions at the University of Kent so she could have more time for her books, but this was not approved. In 1972, Sir Rudolf Peierls and Nicholas Kurti told her that the University of Oxford had created a new professorship in the history of science. This was the first of its kind at Oxford. She didn't expect to get the job, but she was offered the position, even though she didn't have a degree specifically in history or science.
Margaret Gowing was based at Linacre College. Her appointment was seen as a big step forward for studying modern science and for looking at history from social, economic, and political viewpoints. In her first lecture in 1975, she talked about why the history of science had become separate from other types of history and how to bring them back together.
Her two-volume work, Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy 1945–52, was finally published in 1974. These books brought her many awards. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1975 and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1981. She received honorary doctorates from several universities. In 1988, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very high honor for scientists. This made her only the third person to be a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Society.
Margaret Gowing had planned to write another book to continue the story up to 1958, but she never got to it. Lorna Arnold later wrote three books to cover this period.
In the 1980s, Margaret served as a trustee for the Science Museum, London and the Imperial War Museum. However, remembering her own childhood, she resigned from the Imperial War Museum when they started charging entry fees. She also served as a trustee for the National Portrait Gallery from 1978 to 1992.
Margaret Gowing began to suffer from what was likely Alzheimer's disease. She retired from Oxford in 1986. She passed away at Kingston Hospital in Kingston upon Thames on 7 November 1998. Her papers are kept at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.
Published Works
History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Civil Series
- British War Economy (with W.K. Hancock; 1952). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office/Longman's, Green and Co.
- Civil Industry and Trade (with Eric L. Hargreaves; 1952). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office/Longman's, Green & Co.
British Nuclear Weapons Programmes
- Britain and Atomic Energy, 1939–1945 (1964) London: Macmillan Publishing.
- Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–52. Volume 1: Policy Making (assisted by Lorna Arnold). (1974). London: Macmillan Publishing, ISBN: 0-333-15781-8.
- Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–52. Volume 2: Policy Execution (assisted by Lorna Arnold). (1974). London: Macmillan Publishing, ISBN: 0-333-16695-7.
