Bertram HOPKINSON

30 August 1918

Major B. Hopkinson Killed

Major Bertram Hopkinson, C.M.G., F.R.S., was killed on August 26th in a flying accident near London. He had been Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at Cambridge since 1903, and was a Professorial Fellow of King’s. He was the eldest and last surviving son of the late Dr. J. Hopkinson, F.R.S., the engineer and physicist, who was a nephew of the late Mr. J.B. Dewhurst, and cousin of Mr. Algernon Dewhurst J.P., of Aireville, Skipton. A brother of Major Bertram Hopkinson (Lieut. Cecil Hopkinson) died of wounds recently.

The death of Major Hopkinson recalls the tragic Alpine accident of twenty years ago, when. on August 27th, 1898, Dr. John Hopkinson, father of the deceased officer, with another son, Jack, and two daughters, Alice and Lina, were killed, and the new wing of the Engineering School at Cambridge University was erected to their memory. There is now only one daughter left of the family, namely Lady Ewing, wife of Prof. Ewing.

Major Bertram Hopkinson was born in January, 1874. He was educated at St. Paul’s School and Trinity, Cambridge, where, owing to illness, he was forced to take an acgrotat degree in the Mathematical Tripos, Part I., 1895; but in 1896 he was placed in the first class, Division I., of the Second Part. He was called to the Bar in 1897. On his father’s death, however, in the following year, in the Alpine accident already referred to, Major Hopkinson started in business as a consulting engineer in partnership with Mr. Charles Hopkinson and Mr. Ernest Talbot, and jointly with them he was responsible for the design of the electric tramways at Leeds and Newcastle-on-Tyne and many other public works. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1910, and was created a C.M.G. in 1917. He edited Original Papers by his father, with a memoir, and was the author of several scientific and technical papers read before the Royal Society, the Institution of Civil Engineers, and other scientific bodies. He carried out a good deal of experimental work on the phenomena of explosion, measuring, for example, the duration of the pressures produced by the detonation of gun-cotton, and investigating the precise course of events which happen when a mixture of gas and air is burnt in conditions such as obtain in the cylinder of a gas-engine. In 1903 he married the eldest daughter of Mr. Alexander Siemens. The funeral will be a military one, and will take place at Cambridge today (Friday).

06 September 1918

SKIPTON

THE LATE COLONEL HOPKINS0N – The King and Queen, through Lord Stamfordham, have sent a letter of sympathy to the widow of Colonel Bertram Hopkinton, C.M.G., F.R.S. Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at Cambridge, and cousin of Mr. Algernon Dewhurst, J.P., of Airville, Skipton. stating that they are deeply grieved to hear of his death reported in last week’s ‘Pioneer,’ and conveying their heartfelt sympathy for the family in the loss which the death of her distinguished husband had brought to her and the Royal Air Force. The funeral took place on Friday at Cambridge with military honours. The first part of the service in King’s College Chapel, was conducted by Rev. E. Milner-White. As the body was borne through the great court the ‘Dead March’ was player by fifes and drums. After the service the choir sang the Nunc Dimittis at the west door, before the procession moved away to St. Giles’s Cemetery, Huntingdon Road.

13 September 1918

SKIPTON

THE LATE COL. HOPKINSON – As briefly reported in last week’s ‘Pioneer,’ the funeral took place at St. Giles’ Cemetery, Cambridge, with full military honours, of the late Col. Hopkinson, C.M.G., F.R.S., son of the late Dr. J. Hopkinson, F.R.S., and cousin of Mr. Algernon Dewhurst, J. P., of Aireville, Skipton. A two. column report, in addition to photographs of the funeral procession, in the ‘Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal’ testify to the high regard entertained for the deceased officer, who was 44 years of age. The following telegram was received from Windsor Castle by Mrs. Bertram Hopkinson (the widow):– “The King and Queen are deeply grieved to hear of the sorrow that has overtaken your family and I am desired to convey to you our expression of Their Majesties heartfelt sympathy for you all in the loss which the death of your distinguished husband has brought to you and the Royal Air Force, – Stamfordham.” Since the outbreak of the war Col. Hopkinson had been engaged on work connected with the Royal Air Force, carrying out a great many experiments which resulted in vast mechanical improvements being effected. His work was highly valued by the authorities.

20 September 1918

PROF. BERTRAM HOPKlNSON – Sir A. Ewing, Principal of Edinburgh University, has written the following tribute to the scientific work of the late Colonel Bertram Hopkinson, C.M.G., F.R.S., (nephew of Mr. A. Dewhurst, J.P., of Aireville, Skipton) whose death in a flying accident has already been reported in the ‘Pioneer.’ He says:– “It is indeed a tragedy that he should have been taken at the very summit of his powers, and at the moment when they were so fully engaged in serving the nation’s urgent need. His genius for applied science was hereditary. He had the same faculty as gave his father an honoured place in the history of electrical engineering, the same rare combination of mastery of theory and scientific method with appreciation of practical requirements and possibilities. It was this that enabled him to be conspicuously successful as Professor of Applied Mechanics at Cambridge, and it was this that made the value of his war work almost unique. His researches before the war dealt with the processes and results of explosions, with the action of internal combustion engines, and with the fatigue of materials under incipient overstrain. They constituted an apprenticeship for the great work of his life, which was the work of the past four years. Of what he had accomplished in these years, for the Admiralty, and especially for the Air Force, it is not now permissible to speak. This, however, may be said, that the war gave him such an opportunity as be had never had before. No worker rejoiced more in his work nor accepted its call with more absolute self-renunciation. He was amazingly aloof from any consideration of personal advantage of personal convenience. Many will mourn him as a genial and trusted friend, but only those who know something of his recent activities can have any idea of the magnitude of the nation’s loss.”

27 December 1918

Col. Hopkinson’s Will

The will has been proved of Col. Bertram Hopkinson, C.M.G., F.R.S., Royal Air Force, of 10, Adams Road, Cambridge, Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at Cambridge since 1903, who designed electric tramways in Leeds and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and was killed in a flying accident on August 26th last. He was a cousin of Mr. Algernon Dewhurst, J.P., of Skipton. He left £16,457.