Loading...John Anderson
- Name : Anderson
- Born : 1882
- Died : 1958
- Category : Scientists and Inventors
- Finest Moment : Asking his engineer friend to produce the Anderson Shelter.
Born in Edinburgh on 8th July 1882. Anderson was educated at George Watson's College then Edinburgh University, where he graduated with a B.Sc. in 1903, gaining distinction in mathematics, natural philosophy and chemistry, and also an M.A. in mathematics and natural philosophy. He then spent a year in Leipzig, making a special study of uranium.
He entered the Colonial Office in 1905, then transferred to the National Health Insurance Commission. In 1917 he became Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping, a key position during World War I. After various government posts, he became permanent under-secretary at the Home Office, staying for ten years.
In 1924-5 Anderson was Chairman of the sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence on air-raid precautions, whose recommendations were the basis of various measures adopted in 1939. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1938, as an independent nationalist for the Scottish Universities, a position he held until 1950, when these seats were abolished.
As the world moved closer to war, in 1938 he accepted office under Neville Chamberlain a Lord Privy Seal, with special responsibility for manpower and civil defence. He invited his old friend Sir William Paterson, a Scottish engineer, to design what was, with some modifications, to become known as the Anderson Shelter. This had been originally designed by a Dr David Anderson, but in the way of all things, it's name became attached to the other Anderson, who then became fixed as the father of the Anderson Shelter.
This shelter was very basic, consisting of 14 corrugated iron sheets weighing some 400 Kg. If you had a garden, you dug a hole then covered it with the curved sheets of iron. A few bits of concrete, some drainage if you had the energy, and you had a rudimentary protection during air raids. They could hold some 4 to 6 adults and were often very damp, though some families went to great lengths to afford some level of comfort. Some two million were distributed for free during the early part of World War II, until materials ran out.
In September 1938 Anderson became Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security. In the War Cabinet, he undertook much secret work, including some on the atomic bomb. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1943. After a long service in the government, after the war he was given the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh. He died in London, on 4 January, 1958.