Sir Edward Victor Appleton was born on the 6th September 1892 in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England and was educated at Hanson Grammar School.
In 1911, aged 18, he was awarded a scholarship to attend St John’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated with First Class Honours in Natural Science with Physics in 1913, During the First World War he joined the West Riding Regiment, and later transferred to the Royal Engineers. After returning from active service in the First World War, Appleton became assistant demonstrator in experimental physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in 1920. In 1922 he was initiated into Isaac Newton Lodge No.859 based at the University of Cambridge.
He was professor of physics at King’s College London (1924–1936) and professor of natural philosophy at the University of Cambridge (1936–1939). From 1939 to 1949 he was secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Knighted in 1941, he received the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the knowledge of the ionosphere, which led to the development of radar.
From 1949, Bro Appleton was Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh he passed to the Grand Lodge Above on the 21st April 1965 and is buried in Edinburgh’s Morningside Cemetery.
