John William Strutt, third baron Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., sometime president of the Royal society and chancellor of the University of Cambridge / by his son Robert John Strutt, fourth baron Rayleigh.

  • Rayleigh, Robert John Strutt, Baron, 1875-1947.
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John William Strutt, third baron Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., sometime president of the Royal society and chancellor of the University of Cambridge / by his son Robert John Strutt, fourth baron Rayleigh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the wall with it. This incident was mentioned at an after- dinner speech at the Chemical Society, and Lord Kelvin who spoke afterwards, said, <c Lord Rayleigh has told us that he burnt his fingers with phosphorus when he was only twelve years old. I burnt mine in the same way at eightv-two! ” But to go back to the time of his boyhood: his friend and contemporary E. R. Bernard 1 wrote : “ He Jmd a lively appre¬ ciation of anything humorous, and was excitable to a degree which seems to those who recollect it very much in contrast to the composed manner of his later days.” At the age of fourteen he was sent to Harrow, which it was thought might suit his health better than Eton had done. But his stay there was almost as short. A remark which I can call to mind was that he was compelled to do the equations set in algebra for half the boarding house (E, Vaughan’s) that he was in. “ I thought this was a form of bullying,” he said, “ and it did not occur to me till afterwards that they could not do them themselves. “ The only people I feel inclined to nourish a grudge against are those who bullied me at school.” But I have no reason to think he was more bullied than the generality of his contemporaries. The few letters from Harrow which survive dwell chiefly on the desire to be exempt from football, which was too much for him, and this was arranged by his parents, who wrote to thank the captain of the house, George Trevelyan (afterwards Sir George Trevelyan, well known in politics and literature), for meeting their wishes. In the course of his second term at Harrow serious fears of chest trouble arose, and he was taken away. This anxiety lasted for a long time afterwards. There were grave doubts as to whether he would live, and he himself must have realized this, as he made some reference to it at the annual dinner given by his father to the tenants on the estate. “ I had not expected to be with you,” he said in replying to the toast of his health. These tenants’ dinners at Christmas time were a great 1 Afterwards Canon of Salisbury.