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Lorna Arnold
OBE
Arnold in Washington, D.C., 1947
Born
Lorna Margaret Rainbow

(1915-12-07)7 December 1915
Harlesden,Middlesex, England
Died25 March 2014(2014-03-25)(aged 98)
Cumnor,Oxfordshire, England
Known forHistory of theUK nuclear weapons programme
AwardsOfficer of the Order of the British Empire
Scientific career
FieldsHistory of science
InstitutionsUnited Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Lorna Margaret ArnoldOBE(néeRainbow;7 December 1915 – 25 March 2014) was a British historian who wrote several books connected with theBritish nuclear weaponsprogrammes.

A graduate ofBedford College, London,she trained as a teacher at theCambridge Training College for Women,but left teaching in 1940. During theSecond World War,she served with theArmy Councilsecretariat.In 1944, she transferred to theForeign Officeto head a section of the secretariat of theEuropean Advisory Commission.In June 1945, she moved toBerlinas part of theAllied Control Council,working in the Economic Directorate alongside counterparts from France, America and Russia to co-ordinate administering the districts and supplying food to the population. She was posted to Washington, D.C., in November 1946 as part of the British negotiating team that agreed to merge the U.S. and British zones ofAllied-occupied GermanyintoBizonia,and remained atthe Pentagonuntil 1949.

In January 1959, she joined theUnited Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority(UKAEA), where she worked within its Authority Health and Safety Branch (AHSB), coordinating the investigation of the 1957Windscale fire,about which she would later write a book. In 1967, she joinedMargaret Gowingin writing the history of the British nuclear weapons programmes. As its secondofficial historian,she had access to previously secret documents and personally knew many of the people involved. She produced histories of the 1957 Windscale fire, thenuclear weapons tests in Australiaand theBritish hydrogen bomb programme.In her old age she was still an active participant in intelligence/historical community debate.

Early years

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Lorna Margaret Rainbow was born at 35 Craven Park,Harlesden,Middlesex,on 7 December 1915,[1]the eldest of five children of Kenneth Wallace Rainbow and Lorna Pearl Rainbow (née Dawson). She had three younger sisters, Hilary, Rosemary and Ruth, and a younger brother, Geoffrey.[2]Her father served in theFirst World Warwith theRoyal Naval Divisionand theRoyal Navy Air Service.[2]After the war he became a farmer, and the family moved to a farm called Flexwood nearGuildford.[3]She became a vegetarian when she realised at dinner one night that a cow her parents had sold had probably not found a better home.[4]

Rainbow attendedWanboroughPrimary School.[5]No girls in her village had won a scholarship to attend secondary school before Rainbow sat for the examination in 1927, but she was awarded one, along with two other girls. She started at theGuildford County School for Girlsin September 1927.[6]The family moved to a dairy farm called Little Prestwick Farm nearHaslemerein 1931, but she remained at Guildford,[7]becoming its first student to win a scholarship to university.[4][8]She sat exams for bothReading Universityand theUniversity of Londonin 1934, and was offered scholarships by both. She opted to enterBedford College, London,a small women's college of the University of London.[9]It was the first college in the United Kingdom to award degrees to women. She studied English,[10]graduating in 1937 with aBachelor of Artsdegree withupper second-class honours.[11]

After graduation, Rainbow trained as a teacher at theCambridge Training College for Women,a small women's college with about fifty or sixty students at the time. Although it is adjacent toFenner's,theUniversity of Cambridge'scricket ground,it was not at the time a college of the University,[12]and would not be accepted as one until 2007.[13]She graduated with herteaching certificate,which allowed her to secure a position teaching English atBelper Schoolin 1938. She began having fainting spells, and returned to the family's Little Prestwick Farm in 1940.[14]

Second World War, Berlin and Bizonia

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Una Ellis-Fermor,who had been one of Rainbow's lecturers at Bedford,[10]found her a position as a clerk at theMinistry of PensionsinCambridge,where she also lectured part-time for adult education classes. At this point she received atelegramfrom theMinistry of Labour and National Service,who were tracking down graduates not working for the war effort, and was instructed to report for duty at theWar Office.[14]She served as part ofArmy Councilsecretariat,working forLieutenant ColonelAlan Mocatta.There she took on increasing responsibilities, many related to supply and logistics for the war effort. AsD-Daydrew near, her workload became intense, and she tookBenzedrine.During this time, she lived in London with her aunt Phyl onKensington High Street.After her father joined the Army, her mother and siblings left the family farm and moved to the same street, about 1 mile (1.6 km) away. Like many Londoners, they experienced the hazards of the German air raids on London. She served as a neighbourhoodfire warden.The windows of her office at the War Office were blown in twice, and were then replaced withscrim.[15]

Soon after D-Day in 1944, Rainbow transferred to theForeign Officeto head a section of the secretariat of theEuropean Advisory Commission(EAC) atNorfolk House,making arrangements for the post-war administration of Germany.[16]In June 1945, she moved toBerlinas part of theAllied Control Council.For a time, she slept with a revolver under her pillow during the turbulent times just after theBattle of Berlin.[8][17]After the Second World War,Allied-occupied Germanywas divided into four zones, managed by the British, American, French and Russians. Berlin was also divided into four zones, and Rainbow worked as the UK secretary in the Economic Directorate alongside counterparts from France, America and Russia to co-ordinate administering the districts and supplying food to the population.[8][18]

Britain had very limited resources at the end of the war, but the British Zone was the most populated, most industrialised, and most devastated by Allied bombing, and therefore the most expensive for the occupier. The British government decided to reduce the cost by sharing the burden with the United States. Rainbow returned to London to work on this project, and was then sent to Washington, D.C., as part of the British negotiating team.[19][20]She sailed on theRMSQueen Mary,arriving in New York in November 1946. The Americans agreed to merge the U.S. and British zones intoBizonia,with the two nations sharing the costs equally. To deal with issues arising from the agreement, a small staff remained in Washington, and Rainbow was selected to be part of it. After spending Christmas in London, she flew to New York in January 1947.[21]During her time in Washington, she had a desk atthe Pentagon,and lived in a house onP Streetwhich she shared with two other women from theBritish Embassy.She attempted to get the best possible deal for Britain; whenever possible, purchases were made insterling,and shipping was with theCunard Line.Eventually, the British government found even half the cost of Bizonia too much to bear, resulting in further negotiations. In 1949, she returned to England on theRMSMauretania.[22]

Marriage and family

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Rainbow took a position with theFamily Planning Association(FPA).[23]On 26 July 1949, she married Robert Arnold, an Americanchoirmasterand recording engineer she had met in Washington, D.C.,[1]and changed her name to Lorna Arnold. They had two sons, Geoffrey, born in 1950, and Stephen, born in 1952. She continued working at the FPA until three weeks before Geoffrey was born. The family initially lived rent free in an attic apartment at No. 3Cheyne WalkinChelsea,where Robert had a part-time job restoring a collection ofElizabethan-era musical instrumentssuch asvirginals,harpsichordsandclavichords,that had been donated to theNational TrustbyBenton Fletcher.The lower floors of the building were a museum for the instruments.[24]

In late 1952, the National Trust moved the collection of keyboard instruments toFenton House,and the family moved to Brondesbury Road, and then, in 1953, to a house they bought in Oxgate Gardens. Robert worked for theBBCas a studio manager forThe Goon Showand theBBC World Service,and then forEMI,where he was involved with the development ofstereophonic soundand theLP record.Her health deteriorated after Stephen's birth, and she had ahysterectomy.Her aunt Phyl took care of the children while she recovered. In 1955, her husband, unable to reconcile his lifestyle with his homosexuality, returned to the United States, and she became a single mother. She returned to work, initially in a biscuit factory, and then in a series of clerical jobs.[25]

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

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A chance lunchtime meeting with a wartime colleague in 1958 led Arnold to apply for a position at theMinistry of Health.The Director ofEstablishmentsthere asked if he might forward her details to his counterpart at theUnited Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority(UKAEA), which he knew was expanding due to the 1957Windscale fire,there being multiple inquiries into the disaster. To her surprise, her secretariat skills in writing and coordinating reports and studies were exactly what the UKAEA was looking for, and she was hired. After a security background check, she commenced work on 2 January 1959,[26]with the Authority Health and Safety Branch (AHSB).[27]She worked on the Veale Committee on Training in Radiation Safety,[28]and, after it wound up, as personal assistant to the director, Andrew MacLean.[29]

In 1967, Arnold was abruptly reassigned as the UKAEA Records Officer, viceMargaret Gowing,who had published the first volume of the history of theBritish nuclear weapons programme,Britain and Atomic Energy(1964).[30]In 1966, Gowing had become aReaderin Contemporary History at the newUniversity of Kent,Canterbury, covering scientific, technical, economic and social history,[31]and was only working at the UKAEA part-time. The UKAEA therefore decided that Gowing needed an assistant. There was some urgency; thePublic Records Act 1967had reduced the period in which public records were closed to the public from fifty tothirty years.This meant that unless deemed "sensitive", the records of the UKAEA would begin to be transferred to thePublic Record Officeand become available to the public in the 1970s. Getting the records in order and examined for secret material was an enormous and time-consuming task. Under the1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement,American secrets had been shared with the United Kingdom, so the job also involved liaison with American archivists. To be closer to theAtomic Energy Research EstablishmentatHarwell,and theAtomic Weapons EstablishmentatAldermaston,she sold her house in London and bought one on the outskirts ofOxford,from which she could more conveniently reach these establishments via theA34.[30]

Gowing and Arnold published their two-volumeIndependence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–52in 1974, covering thepost-war British atomic bomb programme,to which Arnold contributed six chapters. The success of this work, even before it was published, led to Gowing becoming the first occupant of a new chair in the history of science at theUniversity of Oxfordin 1972.[32]Arnold was honoured as anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire(OBE) in the1977 New Year Honours.[33]With the concurrence of the UKAEA Board, Gowing and Arnold then turned to the task of writing the next instalment of the history of theBritish nuclear weapons programme,about theBritish hydrogen bomb programme.The work proceeded slowly, but during the 1980s, there was increased interest in thenuclear weapons tests in Australia,and the Australian government created theMcClelland Royal Commissionto investigate them. Having written the chapter on these for the book with Gowing, Arnold decided to produce a book.A Very Special Relationship: British Atomic Weapon Trials in Australia.It received mixed reviews,Her Majesty's Stationery Officedid not market it well, and it was not available in Australia. She later produced an updated edition,Britain, Australia and the Bomb:The Nuclear Tests and Their Aftermathin 2005 with Mark Smith from theUniversity of Southampton.[34]

Arnold returned to working on the hydrogen bomb book, but 1987 was the 30th anniversary of theWindscale accident.Rather than let the records of the accident and subsequent inquiries be released over several years, Arnold persuaded the Public Records Office to release them all at once. In meetings with the various responsible government agencies, the topic of a book about Windscale came up, and Arnold decided to write one, which becameWindscale 1957: Anatomy of a Nuclear Accidentin 1992.[35]Gowing, in poor health, retired from the UKAEA in 1993. By this time her two research assistants had also left, and Arnold feared that the UKAEA Council would shut down the hydrogen bomb book project, which she hoped to follow up with one on the UK civil nuclear power programme. The UKAEA Council decided to press on with the project, asking Arnold to stay on although she was now over seventy years old. In 1993, she was joined byKatherine Pyne,an aircraft engineer working on a history degree, who became her research assistant for two years. However, the end was in sight. The UKAEA no longer had responsibility for nuclear weapons, and management was not interested in it. With funds for the project almost exhausted, the UKAEA Council decided that Arnold should retire in 1996. She loaded her notes into her car and took them home. Sympathetic friends at theMinistry of Defencefound some money to cover her expenses, and she doggedly worked on it from home.Britain and the H-Bombfinally appeared in 2001.[36]

Later life

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Arnold was a Fellow of theInstitute of Physics,a rare accolade for a non-physicist,[4]and was a recipient of an Honorary Fellowship of theSociety for Radiological Protection.[37]In 2009, she received an honoraryDoctorate of Lettersfrom theUniversity of Readingfor her work in nuclear history.[38]She was introduced toScilla Elworthy,one of the leaders of theOxford Research Group,one of the UK's leading advocates for alternatives to global conflict, in the 1980s by her friend, physicistRudolf Peierls.[39]Through Elworthy, Arnold became active in the movement fornuclear disarmament.She participated in a series of video presentations on issues of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy for Talkworks, an organisation that focused on dangers associated with nuclear weapons.[37]She also worked with television productions, including twoBBCtelevision documentaries on Windscale in 1990 and 2007, and a six-part documentaryThe Nuclear Age.which was cancelled by the BBC.[40]In an episode of the BBC radio programmeA Room with a View,she visited the room at theUniversity of Birminghamwhere Peierls had worked on theFrisch–Peierls memorandum.[40]

Arnold became legally blind in 2002,[36]but in 2012, aged 96, published her memoirs, entitledMy Short Century,in which she described her life from living on a farm, and friendships with noted figures in the world of nuclear research and development; "but also", noted theDaily Telegraph,"chronicled the life of one of the many thousands of women denied greater eminence because of their sex."[4]She died at Oxenford House care home inCumnor,Oxfordshire,on 25 March 2014 after suffering astroke.[1]She was survived by her two sons.[4][8]

Published works

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  • (1974).Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–52: Volume 1: Policy Making.(WithMargaret Gowing). London: Macmillan.ISBN0-333-15781-8.
  • (1974).Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–52: Volume 2: Policy Execution.(WithMargaret Gowing). London: Macmillan.ISBN0-333-16695-7.
  • (1987).A Very Special Relationship: British Atomic Weapon Trials in Australia.London: HMSO Books.ISBN0-11-772412-2.
  • (2001)Britain and the H-Bomb.London: Palgrave MacmillanISBN0-312-23518-6(withKatherine Pyne)
  • (2005)Britain, Australia and the Bomb:The Nuclear Tests and Their Aftermath.(International Papers in Political Economy) (with Mark Smith) London: Palgrave MacmillanISBN1-4039-2101-6
  • (2007)Windscale 1957: Anatomy of a Nuclear Accident.London: Palgrave MacmillanISBN0-230-57317-7
  • (2012)My Short Century.Palo Alto, California: Cumnor Hill BooksISBN978-0-9837029-0-0

Notes

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  1. ^abcFox, Robert."Arnold [née Rainbow], Lorna Margaret (1915–2014)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.107788.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  2. ^abStout, Kate (15 October 2013)."Ancestors of Lorna Margaret Rainbow"(PDF).Retrieved3 June2017.
  3. ^Arnold 2012,p. 14.
  4. ^abcde"Lorna Arnold – obituary".Daily Telegraph.4 May 2014.Retrieved6 May2014.
  5. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 20–24.
  6. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 25–26.
  7. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 35–36.
  8. ^abcdCathcart, Brian(27 March 2014)."Lorna Arnold obituary | Environment".The Guardian.Retrieved28 March2014.
  9. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 40–41.
  10. ^abArnold 2012,p. 45.
  11. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 53, 60.
  12. ^Arnold 2012,p. 53.
  13. ^Burton, Nikki."Hughes Hall achieves full college status".Varsity.Retrieved20 June2017.
  14. ^abArnold 2012,p. 63.
  15. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 67–78.
  16. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 78–81.
  17. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 83–86.
  18. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 87–94.
  19. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 96–97.
  20. ^Carden 1979,pp. 537–538.
  21. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 98–100.
  22. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 103–109.
  23. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 113–117.
  24. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 117–125.
  25. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 128–131.
  26. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 134–139.
  27. ^Arnold 2000,p. 255.
  28. ^Arnold 2012,p. 142.
  29. ^Arnold 2012,p. 147.
  30. ^abArnold 2012,pp. 150–156.
  31. ^Fox, Robert(20 November 1998)."Obituary: Professor Margaret Gowing".The Independent.Retrieved23 June2017.
  32. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 158–159.
  33. ^"No. 47102".The London Gazette(1st supplement). 30 December 1976. p. 9.
  34. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 160–165.
  35. ^Arnold 2012,pp. 165–166.
  36. ^abArnold 2012,pp. 170–171.
  37. ^abArnold 2012,p. 188.
  38. ^"University of Reading awards Honorary Degrees to nuclear weapons programme expert and a former President of its Council".University of Reading. 15 December 2009.Retrieved21 June2017.
  39. ^Arnold 2012,p. 179.
  40. ^abArnold 2012,pp. 176–178.

References

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