Henry Brose

Henry Herman Leopold Adolph Brose (15 September 1890 – 24 February 1965) was an Australian physicist and translator. During the First World War, he was interned as a civilian prisoner in Germany. He was the first Australian to be awarded a PhD from the University of Oxford. Brose held the Lancaster-Spencer Chair of Physics at the University of Nottingham from 1931 to 1935, and he translated a number of key physics texts from German into English. His translations of crucial German texts on Einstein's theory of General Relativity have been essential for the theory's reception in the English-speaking world. In 1935, Brose moved to Australia where he engaged in cancer research. During the Second World War, suspected of sympathy with the Nazi regime, he was interned in Australia from 1940 to 1943, which ended his academic career.

Life Born in Adelaide, Brose attended Prince Alfred College and graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1910 with a B.Sc. in mathematics. A member of the Adelaide University Athletics Club, Brose was awarded a University Blue for Athletics in 1910. In 1911-12 he taught French at Prince Alfred College, and in 1913 was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for South Australia.

Ruhleben Internment Camp While visiting relatives in Hamburg in 1914, he was arrested by the German authorities and interned at Ruhleben, outside Berlin, as a civilian prisoner for the duration of the First World War. During his captivity Brose became interested in Einstein's Theory of Relativity, realised its significance and, while he was still at Ruhleben, started translating two books on General Relativity that had just recently appeared: philosopher Moritz Schlick's Space and Time in Contemporary Physics and astronomer Erwin Freundlich's The foundations of Einstein's Theory of Gravitation.

Nottingham 1926-1935 Brose was appointed to a permanent position at the University of Nottingham in 1926 and to the Lancaster-Spencer Chair of Physics in 1931.

John Jenkin relates:

′Physics prospered under his leadership. He supervised a number of PhD students, gave regular lectures, and arranged for a number of notable scientists to visit Nottingham, including Sommerfeld, Freundlich, Townsend, C.D. Ellis, Lawrence Bragg and Hatfield.′

On the occasion of Einstein's visit to the University of Nottingham in 1930, Brose borrowed a Rolls-Royce to drive Einstein from Cambridge where he had received an Honorary degree. The two of them drove to Woolsthorpe and visited Newton’s birthplace. Einstein spent two days with Brose and his family in Nottingham. Brose also acted as an interpreter during Einstein's visits of 1930 and 1931.