Herbert Wakefield Banks Skinner

Who was Herbert Wakefield Banks Skinner?

Herbert Wakefield Banks Skinner was a British physicist.

He was born in Ealing, London the only son of George Herbert, a director of the shoemaking firm of Lilley and Skinner, and Mabel Elisabeth Skinner. He was educated at Durston House School in Ealing and Rugby School. In 1919 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining his B.Sc in 1922. He then did research there at the Cavendish Laboratory for five years, and was awarded a Ph.D. He then moved to the Wills Physical Laboratory in Bristol to continue his research.

During WWII he was engaged on the development of radar at the Telecommunications Research Establishment and on the atomic energy project at Berkeley University, California. After WWII he became a director of the General Physics Division at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell. The Russian spy, Klaus Fuchs, was a close friend and stayed with him in his house prior to Fuchs arrest in 1950. Skinner was appointed Lyon-Jones Professor of Physics at Liverpool University

In March 1942 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His candidature citation read:

Wills Research Fellow and Lecturer in Spectroscopy.