Solly Zuckerman

Solly Zuckerman grew up in South Africa in a middle class Jewish family. Once he had qualified as a biology major by studying a colony of baboons in the Veldt, he moved by himself to Britain in 1926. Britain was the mecca for all
aspiring subjects from the colonies. Solly could not have known that he would become one of the most powerful men in England, and during WWII would be responsible for important areas of Defense policy.
From the start Solly was a bit of a social climber, he quickly attached himself to wealthy and important people, including the Jewish Lord and Lady Melchett, Isaiah Berlin, J.D. Bernal, etc. People found him charming, knowledgeable, and driven. He worked incredible hours, and soon was successful in his PhD program in London on the skull of baboons, not a topic one would think would make him powerful and famous. But, people noted his
drive and capability. He was a consummate scientist, basing his conclusions
purely on the evidence. When the Ministry of Defense wanted a mammalian
biologist to study the effects of blast on humans, Solly got the job, using
baboons as a model. He showed that most current ideas about the effects of
blast were wrong.
He set up a unit in Oxford to gather all known evidence on the subject. He
was sent back to S. Africa for further studies, and was reunited with his
family, but apart from a few short visits in the ensuing years he cut himself
off from them, as if that connection was an embarrassment to him. Although
he never denied his Jewishness, it seemed not to matter much to him.
In experiments that could not be done today, he systematically studied the
effects of bomb blasts on baboons, experiments that the Nazis and the
Japanese in Manchuria did on humans. In this way he became one of the
few men in the world who knew about this subject in a scientific way,
and became an invaluable asset when WWII started. In a period of 5 years
he published with his staff 90 scientific papers, including many on baboon
reproduction. When the war started he and Bernal initiated a study of the
casualties of the German bombing and issued a monograph that became the
authority on the subject.
In 1943 he was seconded to the command of Air Field Marshal Lord Tedder
in North Africa, and from the start they got along very well. It proved most
important for Solly's future to have such a powerful patron. Solly was asked
to assess the effectiveness of bombs on gun emplacements, how badly damaged
were the guns, the surroundings and the number of men killed. He quickly
realized that the American bombs were more effective at causing damage and
killing the gunners, and he proved that this was because the American bomb
fuses were set to go off a few seconds after impact, while the British ones
were set for the instant of impact. He argued that the British should change
their fuses, something the hardened military men would not do, until Tedder
was convinced by the evidence and ordered this done throughout the theater
of war. Next, Tedder gave him the job of coming up with a plan to capture the
heavily fortified island of Pantelleria, off the coast of N. Africa, which was
needed before the Allies could commence the invasion of Sicily. Solly studied
photos of the island, and proposed a massive bombing campaign to save the
lives of men in a suicide attack on the heavily defended island. Tedder,
against advice by his military chiefs, adopted this plan, and ordered the RAF
to concentrate its bombers on Pantelleria. Solly had calculated that if more
than 25% of the island's defenses could be destroyed the Germans would give
in, and in fact they did, almost without a fight. This was considered a
great coup for Solly and made him famous as a technical advisor.
When Tedder moved back to England to run the air campaign of the invasion
of Europe under Eisenhower, he took Solly with him. After careful study of all
air aspects of the invasion Solly advised a coordinated powerful bombing
attack on all communications and railways, to prevent rapid German reaction
to the invasion force. But, Bomber Command, under Gen 'Bomber' Harris
had adopted a strategy of hitting German cities, believing that they could
thus break German morale and win the war quickly.
Solly studied the evidence and found that German production had in fact
increased during the period of the intensive city bombing campaign. He also
took evidence from the German bombing of British cities and showed that it
was not valid. However, powerful forces were at play, and the top military
brass did not appreciate an upstart technician (and a Jew at that) telling
them what to do. Nevertheless, once again Tedder and eventually Eisenhower
and Churchill were persuaded by Solly's evidence and a campaign of hitting
the northern French railway system was adopted as the precursor to the
Normandy Landings. It was a great success, German reinforcements were
unable to reach the D-Day landings and many Allied lives were saved.
After WWII Solly was appointed Chairman of the Anatomy Department at
Birmingham University, and concurrently he was appointed Chief Scientific
Adviser to the Min. of Defense, two full time jobs. He managed this by
working in London Mon-Thurs and in Birmingham Fri-Sun. With able staff in
both places, carefully selected by him, he managed to carry out both jobs
successfully. He married at this time Joan Rufus Isaacs, daughter of Lord
Reading and granddaughter of the former Viceroy of India. But, his
first love was clearly his work, and his wife recognized that she had
married a workaholic.
After a few years he was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser to the British
Government, a post he held for 20 years. He was also chosen as the head of
the London Zoo, which became his lifelong devotion. Once again he managed
to juggle these two full time jobs, as well as many academic and Government
functions. One of his important contributions was being instrumental in 1961
in persuading NATO and the US that the use of "tactical" atomic weapons was
unacceptable. He was also responsible for the establishment of the first
Department of Environmental Studies in the UK.
Solly was a well-known bon vivant, raconteur and name-dropper. He was first
knighted as Sir Solly Zuckerman, and then raised to the peerage as Lord
Zuckerman. He knew everyone who was important and everyone knew him.
His place in history has now been eclipsed, but for a few years his star shone
brightly in the firmament of British society.
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This article was based on: "Solly Zuckerman: a scientist out of the ordinary,"
by John Peyton, (John Murray, 2001). It is one of my series on "unlikely
Jewish heroes."