ABSTRACT

Bernal was born on a farm near Nenagh, County Tipperary, on 10 May 1901; he died on 15 September 1971 in London after a long illness, having suffered a first stroke in 1963 and another in 1968.

He married Eileen Sprague, whom he had met while in Cambridge, in 1922. There were two sons, Michael (b 1926) who lectured in physics in Imperial College, and is now retired, and Egan (b 1930) who became a farmer in Suffolk.