ONE OF THE more excruciating stories about Frederick Lindemann’s last years at Oxford concerns a visiting Australian soldier at high table in Christ Church who dared to make a disparaging remark about Churchill. Lindemann had been Churchill’s private scientific and economic adviser during the Second World War. Words were exchanged, and as Lindemann rose and left the Common Room he said loudly enough for all to hear: ‘You can always hear the chains clanking, with those people.’

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