THE LORD PENNEY Of EAST HENDRED, O.M., K.B.E, Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.

      WILLIAM PENNEY, Scientist, the first Director of British nuclear weapon research, was born 1909 in Gibraltar where his father served as a Sergeant in the Army Ordnance Corps. His academic studies began at the Sheerness Technical School and continued as a student at the Imperial College of Science in South Kensington. He returned to Imperial College as Assistant Professor of Mathematics in 1936 after attending the University of Wisconsin, as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow, and Trinity College Cambridge.
      Penney became well known for his research work on atomic physics and as author of several articles on the theory of molecular structure. In 1944-45, as Principal Scientific Officer of the UK Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at the US Los Alamos laboratories New Mexico, he observed the first atomic weapon detonations. In 1947 he was appointed Chief Superintendent of Armament Research at the Ministry of Supply.
      Awarded a K.B.E. in 1952, the following year Sir William was appointed to direct the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston. He was AWRE Director from 1953 to 1959, the period of Britain's emergence as a nuclear power and the weapon tests of Operations Buffalo and Grapple. He personally led the scientific team for the first British A-bomb drops at Maralinga.
      In 1946 William Penney was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and was its Vice-President 1957-60. He was awarded the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society In 1966 and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1969.
      Sir William Penney capped a distinguished career In the field of nuclear research as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Authority. He was created Baron in 1967 when he became Rector of the Imperial College, a post he held until retirement in 1973.