Bristol Aeroplane Company

John Pople was bom in Bumham-on-Sea, Somerset in 1925, the son of a men s clothing storeowner. His parents considered education important and sent him to Bristol Grammar School. Here he developed an interest in mathematics and in 1943 went to Trinity College, Cambridge to read mathematics. As it was wartime he had to finish his degree in two years and in 1945 went to work for the Bristol Aeroplane Company. In 1947 he returned to Cambridge as a maths student but developed an interest in theoretical science. He went on to work with Sir John Lennard-Jones after whom one of the interatomic potentials used in calculations is named. At about the same time Pople decided to learn to play the piano and went on to marry his piano teacher, Joy Bowers. 

Following the decision in Young v. Bristol Aeroplane Company Limited [1944] 2 All ER 293 it became established that a workman was precluded from pursuing a claim at common law even where he did not know of his right to elect if he had in fact accepted weekly payments under the Workmen s Compensation scheme. The Workmen s Compensation insurance policies issued at that time indemnified the insured against his liability to pay compensation under the Workmen s Compensation Act, the Employer s Liability Act 1880 and the Factories Act 1846 or at common law in the event of personal injury to any employee arising out of and in the course of his employment. 

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