12 Facts About Thomas Allibone

Thomas Allibone's work included important research into particle physics, X-rays, high voltage equipment, and electron microscopes.

Thomas Edward Allibone was born at Nether Hallam, Sheffield in 1903, son of Henry James Allibone, a schoolteacher, and Eliza, a farmer's daughter.

Thomas Allibone was educated at the Central School in Sheffield, followed by a Pass degree in physics at Sheffield University at the age of twenty.

In 1925, Allibone was awarded a scholarship by the Metropolitan-Vickers company to study the properties of zirconium, and received a PhD from Sheffield University the following year.

Thomas Allibone left Sheffield in 1926 with a Wollaston scholarship to conduct research at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Thomas Allibone remained at Metropolitan Vickers throughout the 1930s and 1940s, publishing a number of scientific papers on subjects such as high voltage research, and X-ray tubes.

In 1946, Thomas Allibone was appointed director of the AEI research laboratories at Aldermaston Court.

Whilst at Aldermaston Court, Thomas Allibone was involved in pioneering research into nuclear fusion and electron microscopes, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1948.

In 1963, Thomas Allibone left Aldermaston Court to become the Central Electricity Generating Board's chief scientist, a post he held until 1970.

Thomas Allibone became External Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds in 1967.

Thomas Allibone was one of the sponsors of the election to Fellowship of the Royal Society of his friend, the physicist John Samuel Forrest, Director of the Central Electricity Research Laboratory.

Thomas Allibone wrote the obituary on Forrest, published by the Royal Society in 1994.