Published information about Lawrence Bragg. || Born in 1890 in Adelaide (Southern Australia), Lawrence Bragg came to the United Kingdom aged 17, having already graduated in Maths and Physics from the University of Adelaide. He and his father had invented x-ray crystallography in 1913 and Lawrence would later receive the Nobel Prize (joint with his father) in 1915. At the outbreak of war, Lawrence was working at Trinity College, Cambridge and was called up in 1915 into the Leicestershire Royal Horse Artillery (RHA). As someone from the 'colonies', Lawrence felt out of place with 'hunting-and-fishing' types in the regiment, saying that they were like aborigines with their cries of Tally-ho. He was asked to liaise with the French who were starting to develop techniques in sound ranging. The French army wanted to work out how they could detect the location of the heavy German artillery. Sound-ranging could be extremely problematic, results were affected by very low frequencies and wind as well as the damage or sabotage of the delicate equipment required. In the trenches in 1915, Lawrence was informed that his brother, Bob, had been killed at Gallipoli. Bob's death hit the family hard. He later also received news that he had won the Nobel Prize (jointly with his father) - the two visits from the padre imparted very different news. His father was connected with the Admiralty and was a Professor at the University of Leeds at the time, working on submarine detection. Lawrence noticed that when sat on the lavatory during artillery fire, the water level rose meaning there was a change in pressure. Working with a man called Tucker, he conducted simple experiments, for example, using wires stretched across rum bottles. In 1917, Lawrence was put in command of an experimental section; its members were recruited from the trenches by finding soldiers with science degrees. In 1918, the Germans were still using ear trumpets and stopwatches to detect artillery, while the British and French were using complex sound-ranging systems, allowing them to identify the location of German artillery. He received an OBE,the MC and was mentioned in despatches three times. He received little recognition at the time, and the invention of the technology was kept quiet. Several books have been written about his life and work.

A photograph of my father, the scientist and developer of sound-ranging, Lawrence Bragg, in his army uniform.

John Lawrence (front).