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I was born in a village called Cellardyke which lies on the Firth of Forth in the Scottish county of Fife. Joining Cellardyke seamlessly is the larger village of Anstruther; it is mostly only locals who know where one village ends and the other begins. Until the late 1940s Anstruther was the largest of the fishing villages in Fife. Although the fishing fleet there is now small, nevertheless Anstruther lifeboat covers a large area and is called upon quite frequently to vessels in distress. Of course it is part of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. There is a Web site which covers the history of Anstruther lifeboat and in this Web site is a rather fine aerial view of Anstruther.
My first permanent post was in the Scientific Civil Service at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington, Middlesex, England. NPL is situated in Bushy Park, one of the Royal parks; it was very pleasant to stroll there during our break for lunch on a warm sunny day. At the instigation of the Royal Society NPL was founded in 1900, primarily as a 'Standards' laboratory. It is the British equivalent of the National Bureau of Standards in the U.S.A. I was employed as a mathematician in one of its Divisions, Aerodynamics, which ultimately moved on to another site at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. NPL was always renowned for its research and Aerodynamics Division had more than its fair share of people who eventually held Chairs at university, some becoming Fellows of the Royal Society.
Click here to see the main entrance
to NPL.
Click here to view the
NPL Web site.
We spent most of a year in Troy, New York, where I worked in the Department of Mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). For the first time I was fully involved in teaching. I found it a most rewarding experience since the students there responded with enthusiasm. We were very struck by the warmth and kindness shown towards us by the Americans.
Click here to view the RPI Web site.
Click here to view part of UEA.
Click here to view the UEA Web site.
Click here to view a personal photograph album.
Click here
to view some Web pages related to the famous Impressionist painter, Claude
Monet.
Of all the visual artist compositions I find Auguste Rodin's sculptures the most amazing. Who could not be impressed by "The Thinker" and "The Hand of God"? Most impressive of all must surely be the marble, "The Kiss" and "The Age of Bronze". As far as the latter is concerned it is little wonder that, when it was first entered for an exhibition, Rodin was accused of making a cast from a live male model - its most intricate detail makes one wonder how a mere human being could have produced such a sculpture. Any visit to Paris must include a few hours at the Musee Rodin.
Click here to visit
the Musee Rodin website.
This Web site is maintained by
webmaster@cellardyke.free-online.co.uk
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