ABSTRACT
Pat Blackett was one of the most reluctant peers I have ever known and I will not refer to him as Lord Blackett: his career was long, distinguished and diverse, and his interests were in no way confined to science or confined directly to Britain.2 Pat made distinguished contributions to fundamental theoretical work in several fields of physics, and the British and international scientific world is agreed about Pat Blackett’s eminence in these fields, which led to the award of the Nobel prize for physics. Such pre-eminent excellence in one field would have sufficed for most men: not for Pat, who went on to show that he was able to make as outstanding a contribution to experimental and applied science as to theoretical physics, in war and in peace.
