The life of Sir J. J. Thomson, O. M. : sometime master of Trinity College Cambridge / by Lord Rayleigh.
- John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh
- Date:
- 1932
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The life of Sir J. J. Thomson, O. M. : sometime master of Trinity College Cambridge / by Lord Rayleigh. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![is now remembered about him. He was of purely Scottish descent. He had one sister and two brothers, one of whom was not com¬ petent to manage his own affairs. The bookselling business was somewhat similar to that of Quaritch in London, specialising in rare and antique books. His son later shared this taste, and was fond of picking up old books on gardening from the stalls in the market-place and elsewhere in Cambridge. Mrs Thomson, ].J.’s mother, was the daughter of a Mr Swin¬ dells. He had one inconvenient characteristic, namely of producing a bewildering untidiness in his room, which apparently he could not help, and one of his family had to be at hand to produce some sort of order before a housemaid could start work. This peculiarity was inherited by his daughter, Emma (Mrs Thomson), in the form of inability to find her way about in either town or country. Thus, after spending a four or five weeks’ holiday at Whitby with her son and daughter-in-law, she happened to be left alone after they had started for Cambridge. The luggage had gone to the station, and she had planned to walk the distance of not very many yards along a familiar road, which she liked doing. But when the time came, the fear of being ‘lost’, and so missing the train, compelled her to send for a cab. It is believed that other cases similar to hers have been known. The question will naturally be asked whether there was any indication of scientific ability in the family. J.J. Thomson’s own answer to this was that one of his uncles took some interest in meteorology and (perhaps) in botany. ].]. Thomson was born at Cheetham Hill, near Manchester, on December 18th, 1856. The house is one in a terrace, so his father’s business must have been carried on elsewhere. The earliest recollections of him which are available are from Miss Gertrude Mellor, who writes: When my sister was married to Mr Vernon who lived quite near to us, I was only nine years old, and ‘Joe’ Thomson, who was then eleven, was his cousin. My first and only recollection of him at that time was at my sister’s house, one afternoon, a small boy in a little grey suit and a blue silk](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29932208_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
