14 Facts About Ernest Marsden

Ernest Marsden is recognised internationally for his contributions to science while working under Ernest Rutherford, which led to the discovery of new theories on the structure of the atom.

Ernest Marsden served in France during World War I as a Royal Engineer in a special sound-ranging section and was awarded the Military Cross in the 1919 King's Birthday Honours.

In 1922 Ernest Marsden turned from his research and position as Professor of Physics to bureaucracy.

Ernest Marsden was appointed Assistant Director of Education before accepting the position of Secretary of New Zealand's new Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1926.

The new Department's focus was on assisting primary industries, and Ernest Marsden worked to organise research particularly in the area of agriculture.

Ernest Marsden initiated a number of projects that kept New Zealand in touch with international developments in the field of radiation and nuclear sciences.

Ernest Marsden used his scientific connections to form a team of young New Zealand scientists who would participate in the American Manhattan Project developing the nuclear bomb, and initiated the search for uranium, the raw material needed for nuclear projects, in New Zealand.

Ernest Marsden had a post-war vision of a nuclear New Zealand, with scientists working on research using local nuclear reactors, and developing connections with the British nuclear energy and weapons program.

Ernest Marsden retired in 1954 and returned to Wellington, where he continued to work and travel extensively, serving on a number of committees and conducting research into environmental radioactivity.

In 1966, the same year France began testing nuclear bombs in the Pacific, Ernest Marsden suffered a stroke which left him confined to a wheelchair.

Ernest Marsden later died at his home in Lowry Bay, Lower Hutt on the shores of Wellington Harbour in 1970.

Two years later, on 26 June 1958, Ernest Marsden married Joyce Winifred Chote, who was 30 years his junior.

Ernest Marsden assisted him in his remaining years, joining him on his travels and supporting him during his research.

Ernest Marsden was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1946 New Year Honours and a Knight Bachelor in the 1958 New Year Honours, for services to science.