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John Cockcroft Facts & Worksheets

John Cockcroft was a British physicist who is known for winning the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics, alongside Ernest Walton, for their work as pioneers of using particle accelerators in studying the atomic nucleus.

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John Cockcroft was a British physicist who is known for winning the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics, alongside Ernest Walton, for their work as pioneers of using particle accelerators in studying the atomic nucleus.

See the fact file below for more information on the John Cockcroft or alternatively, you can download our 22-page John Cockcroft worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

  • John Cockcroft was born as John Douglas Cockcroft on May 27, 1897, in Todmorden, West Riding of Yorkshire in England.
  • John was the eldest son of John Arthur Cockcroft, a mill owner, and of Annie Maude née Fielden.
  • John had four younger brothers named Eric, Philip, Keith, and Lionel.
  • From 1901 to 1908, John studied at the Church of England School in Walsden.
  • From 1908 to 1909, John attended Todmorden Elementary School and later transferred to Todmorden Secondary School until 1914.
  • In 1914, John won a County Major Scholarship, West Riding of Yorkshire that allowed him to attend Victoria University of Manchester, where he studied mathematics.
  • John completed his first year at the university in June 1915 and later on joined the Officers’ Training Corps.
  • He later on worked at a YMCA canteen at Kinmel Camp in Wales.
  • On November 24, 1915, John enlisted in the British Army.
  • After less than a year, on March 29, 1916, John joined the 59th Training Brigade, Royal Field Artillery and was trained as a signaller.
  • John participated in the Advance to the Hindenburg Line and the Third Battle of Ypres.
  • In February 1918, John was sent to Brighton, where he learned about gunnery.
  • In April 1918, John was trained as a field artillery officer at the Officer Candidate School in Weedon Bec in Northamptonshire.
  • On October 17, 1918, John was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery.
  • After John was released from the army in January 1919, he decided not to go back to Victoria University of Manchester. Instead, he went to Manchester Municipal College of Technology, where he studied electrical engineering.
  • He finished his degree in June 1920 and began an apprenticeship with Metropolitan Vickers.
  • In June 1922, John completed his master’s degree by submitting his thesis on the “Harmonic Analysis of Alternating Currents”.

AS A RESEARCHER

  • John was accepted by Ernest Rutherford as a research student at the Cavendish Laboratory under the recommendation of Miles Walker.
  • John finished his doctoral thesis, “On phenomena occurring in the condensation of molecular streams on surfaces”, under the supervision of Rutherford.
  • John’s thesis was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
  • On September 6, 1925, John completed his doctoral studies.
  • At the same time, John was working as an assistant to a Russian physicist, Peter Kapitza, who was working on the physics of magnetic fields in extremely low temperatures.
  • On November 8, 1925, John was elected as a Fellow of St. John’s College.
  • In March 1932, John and Ernest Walton began operating their accelerator, bombarding lithium and beryllium with high-energy protons.
  • With their experiment, both John and Ernest were expecting to see gamma rays, according to previous reports of other scientists, but the two found none.
  • In February 1932, James Chadwick had actually created a demonstration that showed what had been observed were, in fact, neutrons.
  • John and Ernest then switched their focus from looking for gamma rays to looking for alpha particles instead.
  • On April 14, 1932, Ernest bombarded a lithium target wherein he noticed something that he thought might be alpha particles.
  • Rutherford and John confirmed Ernest’s suspicions, and this feat was popularly known as splitting the atom.
  • Due to this achievement, John and Ernest were awarded the Hughes Medal in 1938.
  • In 1951, John and Ernest were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

WORLD WAR II

  • At the outbreak of the Second World War, John took on the position of Assistant Director of Scientific Research in the Ministry of Supply, which works on radar.
  • In August 1940, John went to the United States as part of the Tizard Mission, which happened because Britain wanted to fully exploit the capacity of the new technologies they had developed.
  • In December 1940, John returned to Britain and was appointed as Chief Superintendent of the Air Defence Research Development Establishment (ADRDE) at Hampshire.
  • During this time, John’s focus was on the use of radar for shooting down enemy aircraft.

PERSONAL AND LATER LIFE

  • On August 26, 1925, John married Elizabeth Crabtree in Todmorden.
  • The two both attended Todmorden Secondary School.
  • The couple had six children together.
  • In January 1959, John was announced as the first Master of the Churchill College, Cambridge.
  • John was also the president of the Institute of Physics from 1954 to 1956.
  • He served as the chancellor of the Australian National University in Canberra from 1961 to 1965.
  • On September 18, 1967, John died from a heart attack at his home in Churchill College, Cambridge.
  • John’s remains were buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.

John Cockcroft Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the John Cockcroft across 22 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use John Cockcroft worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about John Cockcroft who was a British physicist who is known for winning the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics, alongside Ernest Walton, for their work as pioneers of using particle accelerators in studying the atomic nucleus.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • John Cockcroft Facts
  • More
  • Years
  • Atom
  • N. Fission
  • Rays
  • Act One
  • NR
  • Them
  • Walton
  • To Cockcroft

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Use With Any Curriculum

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