Early days

Dear Mr. Dacombe:

Thank you for sending me a copy of the Annual Report. It is humbling to learn from it of the giant oak which has grown from the tiny acorn Ewald and I planted almost 50 years ago. In those days I was General Secretary AND Technical Editor of Acta AND full-time university lecturer all rolled into one!

I was very sorry to learn of the death of Jim King. I spent several very enjoyable days with Jim in Chester about 20 years ago looking through your archives when there was some talk of my writing a history of the Union. Happily, Harmka Kamminga appeared on the scene and was able to apply her professionalism to a task for which I could claim no qualifications.

If you have had time in the midst of all your duties to look into the early days of the Union, you will of course know that the seeds were sown at the RI conference in London in July 1946. I always think of 7 April 1947 as its birthday: it was on that day that Stratton wrote to tell me that we had been officially admitted into ICSU. Whichever year is taken, the half-century is not far ahead and I am sure that the Union has plans to mark the occasion.