Maritimer's Work On Manhattan Project Cost Him Everything
Maritimer's Work On Manhattan Project from Shediac NB in Canada. His home is still there.
In 1943 Canadian scientist William Webster was transferred to Los Alamos Laboratory
to work under Robert Oppenheimer on the actual scientific work of building the bomb.
Dare We Remember : ..July 20, 2023|1900s, Moncton, War
Dr William Lusk Webster's enigmatic work on developing the nuclear bomb took him all over the world pushing for the project to begin, and to Los Alamos Laboratory to work under Robert Oppenheimer to finish the project. It would cost his family dearly though, after his sister was murdered. (New Brunswick Museum 1989-103-216)
An enigmatic New Brunswcker was instrumental in the development of the nuclear bomb, but it was said that “the horror of the bomb haunted him for the rest of his life.”
From the end of the Second World War up until his death in 1975, a mysterious old man lived alone in a large mansion in Shediac.
In the early 1970s, a reporter tried to interview the old man but was angrily rebuffed. The reporter wrote that the mysterious hermit was “a great bear of a man” who strode down Shediac’s Main Street with a heavy coat flapping behind him in the height of summer. “There goes the flying nun,” a local resident remarked to the reporter who asked if they knew who the recluse was. The local shrugged and remarked that they’d heard that he had once been “some sort of a scientist.”
The mysterious man was Dr. William Lusk Webster, a recipient of both the Order of the British Empire and the American Presidential Medal of Freedom.
William Webster was the youngest son of Dr. John Clarence Webster, who was a wealthy and famous doctor and medical researcher in Chicago, before moving back home to Shediac and becoming a prolific Maritimes historian.
It was said that William and his father never got along. In fact, his father almost completely omitted his youngest son from his autobiography titled These Crowded Years, with the exception of a comment that it had been difficult to track down 28-year-old William to inform him that his older brother died in an airplane crash.
William was hard to find because he was working for the British government on a top secret scientific research project in the Soviet Union. He was already an internationally esteemed scholar, boasting degrees from both the London School of Economics and Cambridge University.
By then William Webster was already a highly decorated scholar boasting degrees from both the London School of Economics and Cambridge University.
In November 1929 WIlliam sent his father a short note reading: “Dear Dad, The enclosed clipping gives my latest news. I am very pleased as it suggests that the powers that be are satisfied with my existence here. Bill”
The attached article noted that he had been recognized for his work on experimental physics.
His father appears to have not replied.
In 1933, William Webster took what he called his first vacation “after nine years of uninterrupted work at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.” He drove 15,000 miles from Kenya, in East Africa, to Algiers in Algeria. Despite writing a lengthy first-hand account of his epic journey for Canadian Geographical Journal, he reveals little of himself, as a person.
Indeed, he seems to have been extremely guarded throughout his life. A shy child, he was in the shadows of his family. His mother, Alice Lusk, was a renowned expert and lecturer in the art world. His brother, J. C. Webster Jr, had been an award winning pilot. His sister Janet was an outgoing and gregarious international socialite living in France with a famous artist.
William Webster was also extraordinarily accomplished. However, much of his life remains top secret even today.
Dr. William Lusk Webster (the tall man in the centre) photographed in the White House after being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Notably, media reports omitted exactly what he was being awarded the medal for. (New Brunswick Museum 1989-103-617)
During the Second World War, he held various remarkably high-level positions with the Directorate of Scientific Research, Ministry of Supply, London; the British Central Scientific Office, Washington; the National Research Council, Ottawa; the Air Defense Research and Development Establishment, Ministry of Supply, London; and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research of Great Britain in Washington.
None of this was known to the wider public, let alone his own family. A disappointed-sounding note penned by his father indicates he was under the impression that his youngest son spent the war working as “a travelling salesman.”
If William Webster had been selling anything during the war, it was the idea that the Allies must build nuclear weapons before Nazi Germany.
Before the United States formally joined the Second World War, Britain was the world leader in nuclear research; however, Britain, on its own, would never have the money or capacity to develop a nuclear bomb in time.
The British government sent several clandestine delegations to Washington DC to try and convince the Americans to help them develop the bomb. William Webster appears to have been a key member of those secret delegations.
Webster’s unique background in both theoretical physics and economics, was likely invaluable in convincing the Americans to begin the Manhattan Project.
It’s likely that Webster’s unique background in both theoretical physics and economics was invaluable in convincing the Americans to begin the Manhattan Project, the largest and most expensive project in all human history at that time. It employed some 500,000 people and was constructing a completely new industry from scratch. It was so secret that it was even hidden from the American Congress that was funding it.
Even today, the Manhattan Project remains a secret, making piecing together Webster’s role in it unusually difficult.
William Lusk Webster pictured in the White House looking distinctly pained after just having received the American Presidential Medal of Freedom moments earlier (detail of New Brunswick Museum 1989-103-617)
It appears that in the early stages he held the role of Secretary of the British contributions to the Project, coordinating the extraordinary and unprecedented money, material, and manpower going into developing a nuclear weapon.
According to Lillian Henderson’s book Critical Assembly, in 1943 William Webster was transferred to Los Alamos Laboratory to work under Robert Oppenheimer on the actual scientific work of building the bomb.
In 1945, just as the bomb was being completed, William Webster abruptly resigned.
The general consensus appears to be that the sheer destructive scale of what he was building dawned on him.
But his work may have cost him dearly on a much more personal level than many of the other Manhattan Project scientists:
His sister Janet had been living in France when the Nazis occupied it. Around the time William Webster travelled to America to convince them to start the Manhattan Project, Janet was arrested by the Nazis.
Her father’s biographer Pierre Eric Landry noted a theory that: “she was easy prey for German Intelligence wanting to get back at Dr. William Webster, the globetrotting nuclear scientist brother.”
Janet Webster would die in a Nazi concentration camp. Shortly after learning of her death, William Webster resigned from the Manhattan Project, divorced his wife, and chose to live the rest of his life alone in his family’s empty mansion in Shediac.
.The End
dr. π (pi)
.
In 1943 Canadian scientist William Webster was transferred to Los Alamos Laboratory
to work under Robert Oppenheimer on the actual scientific work of building the bomb.
Dare We Remember : ..July 20, 2023|1900s, Moncton, War
Dr William Lusk Webster's enigmatic work on developing the nuclear bomb took him all over the world pushing for the project to begin, and to Los Alamos Laboratory to work under Robert Oppenheimer to finish the project. It would cost his family dearly though, after his sister was murdered. (New Brunswick Museum 1989-103-216)
An enigmatic New Brunswcker was instrumental in the development of the nuclear bomb, but it was said that “the horror of the bomb haunted him for the rest of his life.”
From the end of the Second World War up until his death in 1975, a mysterious old man lived alone in a large mansion in Shediac.
In the early 1970s, a reporter tried to interview the old man but was angrily rebuffed. The reporter wrote that the mysterious hermit was “a great bear of a man” who strode down Shediac’s Main Street with a heavy coat flapping behind him in the height of summer. “There goes the flying nun,” a local resident remarked to the reporter who asked if they knew who the recluse was. The local shrugged and remarked that they’d heard that he had once been “some sort of a scientist.”
The mysterious man was Dr. William Lusk Webster, a recipient of both the Order of the British Empire and the American Presidential Medal of Freedom.
William Webster was the youngest son of Dr. John Clarence Webster, who was a wealthy and famous doctor and medical researcher in Chicago, before moving back home to Shediac and becoming a prolific Maritimes historian.
It was said that William and his father never got along. In fact, his father almost completely omitted his youngest son from his autobiography titled These Crowded Years, with the exception of a comment that it had been difficult to track down 28-year-old William to inform him that his older brother died in an airplane crash.
William was hard to find because he was working for the British government on a top secret scientific research project in the Soviet Union. He was already an internationally esteemed scholar, boasting degrees from both the London School of Economics and Cambridge University.
By then William Webster was already a highly decorated scholar boasting degrees from both the London School of Economics and Cambridge University.
In November 1929 WIlliam sent his father a short note reading: “Dear Dad, The enclosed clipping gives my latest news. I am very pleased as it suggests that the powers that be are satisfied with my existence here. Bill”
The attached article noted that he had been recognized for his work on experimental physics.
His father appears to have not replied.
In 1933, William Webster took what he called his first vacation “after nine years of uninterrupted work at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.” He drove 15,000 miles from Kenya, in East Africa, to Algiers in Algeria. Despite writing a lengthy first-hand account of his epic journey for Canadian Geographical Journal, he reveals little of himself, as a person.
Indeed, he seems to have been extremely guarded throughout his life. A shy child, he was in the shadows of his family. His mother, Alice Lusk, was a renowned expert and lecturer in the art world. His brother, J. C. Webster Jr, had been an award winning pilot. His sister Janet was an outgoing and gregarious international socialite living in France with a famous artist.
William Webster was also extraordinarily accomplished. However, much of his life remains top secret even today.
Dr. William Lusk Webster (the tall man in the centre) photographed in the White House after being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Notably, media reports omitted exactly what he was being awarded the medal for. (New Brunswick Museum 1989-103-617)
During the Second World War, he held various remarkably high-level positions with the Directorate of Scientific Research, Ministry of Supply, London; the British Central Scientific Office, Washington; the National Research Council, Ottawa; the Air Defense Research and Development Establishment, Ministry of Supply, London; and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research of Great Britain in Washington.
None of this was known to the wider public, let alone his own family. A disappointed-sounding note penned by his father indicates he was under the impression that his youngest son spent the war working as “a travelling salesman.”
If William Webster had been selling anything during the war, it was the idea that the Allies must build nuclear weapons before Nazi Germany.
Before the United States formally joined the Second World War, Britain was the world leader in nuclear research; however, Britain, on its own, would never have the money or capacity to develop a nuclear bomb in time.
The British government sent several clandestine delegations to Washington DC to try and convince the Americans to help them develop the bomb. William Webster appears to have been a key member of those secret delegations.
Webster’s unique background in both theoretical physics and economics, was likely invaluable in convincing the Americans to begin the Manhattan Project.
It’s likely that Webster’s unique background in both theoretical physics and economics was invaluable in convincing the Americans to begin the Manhattan Project, the largest and most expensive project in all human history at that time. It employed some 500,000 people and was constructing a completely new industry from scratch. It was so secret that it was even hidden from the American Congress that was funding it.
Even today, the Manhattan Project remains a secret, making piecing together Webster’s role in it unusually difficult.
William Lusk Webster pictured in the White House looking distinctly pained after just having received the American Presidential Medal of Freedom moments earlier (detail of New Brunswick Museum 1989-103-617)
It appears that in the early stages he held the role of Secretary of the British contributions to the Project, coordinating the extraordinary and unprecedented money, material, and manpower going into developing a nuclear weapon.
According to Lillian Henderson’s book Critical Assembly, in 1943 William Webster was transferred to Los Alamos Laboratory to work under Robert Oppenheimer on the actual scientific work of building the bomb.
In 1945, just as the bomb was being completed, William Webster abruptly resigned.
The general consensus appears to be that the sheer destructive scale of what he was building dawned on him.
But his work may have cost him dearly on a much more personal level than many of the other Manhattan Project scientists:
His sister Janet had been living in France when the Nazis occupied it. Around the time William Webster travelled to America to convince them to start the Manhattan Project, Janet was arrested by the Nazis.
Her father’s biographer Pierre Eric Landry noted a theory that: “she was easy prey for German Intelligence wanting to get back at Dr. William Webster, the globetrotting nuclear scientist brother.”
Janet Webster would die in a Nazi concentration camp. Shortly after learning of her death, William Webster resigned from the Manhattan Project, divorced his wife, and chose to live the rest of his life alone in his family’s empty mansion in Shediac.
.The End
dr. π (pi)
.