Harry Elliot

Henry Elliot , (28 June 1920 – 5 July 2009) was a British space scientist, and Emeritus Professor of Physics, at the University of London.

Biography

Harry Elliot was born at Mealsgate, near Wigton, Cumberland, the son of Thomas, farmer, and Hannah Elizabeth (née Littleton), who died in 1928. He was brought up by two elder sisters. In the following year he was invited by Blackett to join him in a move to Imperial College London. They were both involved in the International Geophysical Year, which in fact lasted 18 months (July 1957 to December 1958).

The 1950s saw the start of the space age. After the USSR launched its first Earth Satellite in 1957 the International Council of Scientific Unions formed a special Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), which held its first meeting in London in October 1958. At its second meeting the Americans offered that the newly formed NASA would be prepared to launch foreign payloads and even spacecraft. The British were quick to follow up on this and a group went to the USA three months later to take up the offer, thus beginning work on the Ariel series of rockets. Elliot was selected to build a cosmic ray detector for Ariel 1. In January 1960 he went with Sir Harrie Massey FRS and Peter Willmore to Washington to agree the payload and details of cooperation.

In that same year Elliot was promoted to a chair at Imperial, and at his inaugural lecture he displayed the engineering model of the cosmic ray detector he was to fly on Ariel 1.

Family

During his time with Coastal Command in Devon, Harry Elliot met Betty Leyman, also with the Command. They married in Cornwall in 1943, and had two children: Brian and Jean.

Betty died in Tunbridge Wells on 25 January 2007. Harry died there on 5 July 2009.

Honours