One well-known scientist was an ordinary family bloke during the week but dressed very bizarrely at weekends and used to walk through the town with a shopping basket on his head and his children tethered by rope behind him.
As you’d probably expect with so many quirky, clever people corralled into one place, eccentric often became the norm. Ian Abbott says “I remember Nigel Nichols – he of the basket of shopping on his head – very well. My employment at RRE was from 1960 to 1975, mostly in the Physics & Electronics Departments”
Christine Escritt says: – “Yes, I remember the scientist you mentioned with the basket on his head. I lived with my family of 5 kids half a mile from the girls college for 18 years. I eventually worked for REME at one of the old radar sites in Malvern Link. The best childhood!”
Ian Abbott says: – “I remember Nigel Nichols – he of the basket of shopping on his head – very well. My employment at RRE was from 1960 to 1975, mostly in the Physics & Electronics Departments”
Rachel Baker says: “I read about your childhood in Malvern, and thought you might be interested to know that my husband remembers seeing an elderly gent who carried his shopping basket on his head. He was of course a bit of a local “curiosity” in the Co-op store where my husband was working at the time. This would have been around 35years ago.”
Mike Saunders says “. “One certain person was Nigel Nicholls who was a top scientist, one of the best in the world in his field which was then crystal growing of the microchips. Nigel was one of the most sought after people by the Russians in the cold war days. “
`Radar Families' 