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Professor James MacDonald CASSELS (1924-1994)
| Name: | James MacDonald CASSELS |
| Sex: | Male |
| Name Prefix: | Professor |
| Father: | Alasdair Macdonald CASSELS ( - ) |
| Mother: | Ada White SCOTT ( - ) |
Individual Events and Attributes
| Birth | 9 Sep 1924 | Penang, Malaya |
| Occupation | Professor of Physics, Liverpool University | |
| Death | 19 Oct 1994 (age 70) |
Marriage (1)
| Spouse | Jane Helen Thera LAWRENCE (1927-1977) | |
| Children | Son CASSELS ( - ) | |
| Daughter CASSELS ( - ) | ||
| Marriage | 1947 (age 22-23) | |
Marriage (2)
| Spouse | Analiesia Theresa BESTMAN ( - ) | |
| Status | Divorced | |
| Marriage | 1986 (age 61-62) | |
Individual Note 1
James Macdonald Cassels was born in Penang, Malaya on 9 September 1924, the son of Alastair Macdonald Cassels and Ada White Cassels (nee Scott). His father was a bank manager of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.
Cassels was educated at Rochester House School in Edinburgh, then St Lawrence College, Ramsgate and Trinity College Cambridge where he obtained an honours degree in physics. At Cambridge, Cassels met his first wife, Jane Lawrence (daughter of A W Lawrence the youngest brother of T E Lawrence and Professor of Classical Archaeology). They married in 1947 and had a son and a daughter. Jane Cassels died in 1977. Cassels married Analesia Theresa Bestman in 1986 (the marriage ended in divorce in 1989).
In 1944, Cassels was drafted into the government atomic bomb project (code named "Tube alloys research"). In 1946, Cassels began to study for his PhD and worked on the inelastic scattering of slow neutrons by polycrystalline solids and the investigation of the frequency spectrum of lattice vibrations in a crystal. Cassels left Cambridge in 1949 to take up a Research Fellowship at Harwell and worked on the 110-inch cyclotron. He remained at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell as a Fellow and Principal Scientific Officer until 1953. He also became interested in the politics of science and advocated British participation in the establishment of a Centre Europeenne pour la Recherche Nucleaire (CERN). At Harwell he was involved with the experimental programme of the synchrocyclotron.
He moved to the University of Liverpool in 1953, initially as a lecturer, then Professor of Experimental Physics, a position he held from 1960-1982. Cassels was an Extraordinary Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge from 1959-1960. After a brief period 1959-1960 as Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Cassels became Head of Department at Liverpool, a position he held from 1960-1974.
The energy crisis of 1973 raised the prominence of the issue of energy conservation, and Cassels began to promote the idea of the transportation of warm water from power stations and its use to heat buildings. Cassels was a member of the Marshall Committee (chaired by Walter Marshall) later known as the Combined Heat and Power Group of the Department of Energy from 1974-1979. His interest in energy issues continued after his retirement from Liverpool University in 1982 and he sent many letters to the press on this and other topics. Cassels suffered from manic depression and from 1977 was a diabetic. He set up a company, Igitur Ltd, to promote the use of 'left-handed sugars'.
He died on 19 October 1994.
The papers held at Churchill Archives Centre include a small amount of biographical and personal material, public or official correspondence, and material relating to government policy on energy (mainly in the 1980's).
The papers were deposited at Churchill Archives Centre in 1993.
No accruals are anticipated.
The papers originally contained a small amount of ephemeral material (receipts, blank diaries, and 'house diaries' used for correspondence with Cassels' cleaner/housekeepers). This material is not in the catalogue. Duplicate material has been disposed of.
The papers have been arranged in three series covering personal/biographical, correspondence and government and energy policy.
Access and Use
The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. Churchill Archives Centre is open from Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. A prior appointment and two forms of identification are required.
Please cite as Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Professor James Cassels, CASS
Further information
The archives of the University of Liverpool are held at the University Library, where two poems by Cassels (ref D. 724) are also held. Contact: Special Collections and Archives, Sydney Jones Library, The University of Liverpool, PO Box 123, Liverpool L69 3DA.
The collection has been catalogued. A copy of the printed catalogue is available for consultation at Churchill Archives Centre and at the National Register of Archives.
The papers were catalogued by Natalie Adams of Churchill Archives Centre in February 2002. Information for Cassels' biographical history was taken from his entry in Who Was Who (A and C Black) and from J R Holt's biographical memoir for the Royal Society (1996, CASS 1/1).
Index Terms
Government Policy
Physics
Science
Cassels, James Macdonald (1924-1994) physicist
Churchill/CASS contains:
1 Biographical and personal.
2 files and 2 volumes; paper. 1967–1996
2 Correspondence.
9 files; paper. 1969–1994
3 Government and Energy Policy.
3 boxes; paper. 1971–1989
Individual Note 2
Recipient of the Rutherford Medal and Prize in 1973
Individual Note 3
The Papers of Professor James Cassels
Title Biographical and personal
Reference CASS 1
Covering Dates 1967–1996
Extent and Medium 2 files and 2 volumes; paper
Content and context
Includes papers and diaries.
Churchill/CASS 1 contains:
1 Biographical. Includes: Cassels' entry in Who's Who (1989); notes on his family history; and a biographical memoir of Cassels by J R Holt for the Royal Society (1996).
1 file; paper. 1989–1996
2 Legal documents. Includes a copy of the will of Ada White Cassels (Cassels' mother) and papers relating to the dissolution of Cassels' marriage to Analesia Theresa Bestman.
1 file; paper. 1967–1989
3 Personal correspondence. Includes letters from a variety of correspondents to James Cassels and Jane Cassels including: A W Lawrence (relating to papers of T E Lawrence), Nigel Stock, Sonia Stock, Anne Wolff, Mary Dunn and Cassels' children.
1 file; paper. 1972–1990
4 Diary. University of Liverpool pocket diary containing brief notes of appointments, meetings, etc.
1 volume; paper. September 1985-December 1986
5 Diary. University of Liverpool pocket diary containing brief notes of appointments, meetings, etc.
1 volume; paper. September 1986-December 1987
Note on Marriage to Analiesia Theresa BESTMAN
Divorced 1989