Celebrations Commemorate the Legacy of Henry Moseley at Oxford

A day of events at Trinity College and the Department of Physics commemorated the memory of physicist Henry Moseley at Oxford University. 

Henry Moseley was one of the greatest scientists ever to study at the college, and his work in X-ray spectra led directly to the development of the Periodic Table. To commemorate his legacy, the College, along with Oxford’s Department of Physics, held a day of events and formal dedication of its Antony Gormley-designed door to Moseley’s memory. 

The dedication of the new gate – a portal through which Moseley would have passed hundreds of times as he traveled between Trinity and his laboratory in the Clarendon Building – include a program of poetry by celebrated Trinity College poets, including Laurence Binyon's 'For the Fallen', Thomas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' and Robert Coffin's 'Crystal Moment.'  A new poem – a clerihew – by Simon Armitage was recited in homage to Moseley:

"Let’s give it up for Henry Moseley,
because not everyone knows he
helped devise the Periodic Table,
without which the elements would be highly unstable."

Presiding at the dedication ceremony alongside Trinity President Boulding was Princess Elettra Marconi, daughter of the inventor of radio, Guglielmo Marconi, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909.  Also in attendance were senior scientists from across the university and distinguished representatives from the Gallipoli Association, the Signal Corps, the Summerfields School (where Moseley attended as a child), and the RAF CCF. 

In addition to the gate, the university also dedicated a new portrait of Moseley, hung in the Beecroft physics building, showing Moseley in his Signal Corps uniform. To commemorate the occasion, and in memory of Moseley's own service and sacrifice, Trinity is creating the Marconi-Moseley Scholarship for Science in the Service of Humanity.

The program concluded with a performance of a newly commissioned musical work, the 'Rust Symphony', by composer Hani Eilas, derived from the actual sounds of oxidation.  This performance was dedicated to Antony Gormley, whose works are characterized by carefully cultivated oxidized finishes.

Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley – Harry to his friends – was one of the greatest scientists ever to study at Trinity College. A gifted mathematician and a natural experimenter, his original work in X-ray spectra was instrumental in the creation of ‘Moseley’s Law’ and led directly to the development of the Periodic Table. Moseley came up to Trinity as a Millard Scholar in 1906, and spent four years in college, where he was also active as a member of the Boat Club. The only man in his year reading Physics, he did not achieve First Class Honours, and on graduation took a humble job in the Manchester laboratory of the eminent physicist Ernest Rutherford. 

Harry Moseley returned to Oxford as a self-funded scientist in November 1913, but on the outbreak of World War One he did not hesitate to volunteer for military service, which he saw as a clear patriotic duty. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, he was killed in action at Gallipoli on 10 August 1915.  Moseley was expected to win the Nobel Prize for Physics that year; and following his death, no award was made. The outcry at such a pointless loss of an outstanding scientist at the height of his career, led to a change in policy as to who could volunteer for frontline service.