WHEN EINSTEIN ‘GRADUATED’ FROM CITY UNI
Honorary degree handed out to world-famous scientist
ANIMATED scenes were witnessed,” we reported, in June 1933, “when Professor Einstein left by Royal Scot train for London...” The world-famous scientist had been visiting the city to attend Glasgow University’s graduation ceremony, in which he received the honorary degree of LLD.
Here, he is pictured with his host, Archibald Young, Professor of Surgery at the university, at his home in Park Gardens. (Incidentally, according to the Smithsonian Museum, Einstein understood smoking was bad for his health, and when the doctors told him to give it up he did, choosing instead just to chew on his pipe rather than fill it with tobacco.”
Our sister newspaper, the then Glasgow Herald, reported: “Professor Einstein was accompanied to the train by his host and hostess Professor Young and Mrs Young. Members of the general public participated also in the farewell and cheers were raised as the train steamed out of the station.”
Einstein reportedly leaned out of the carriage window to acknowledge the cheering crowds who had gathered to bid him farewell after an eventful visit.
“Before entering the train the distinguished visitors expressed the delight they had experienced in their visit to Glasgow and their gratitude for the cordial reception and hospitality extended to them,” add the report, referring to French statesman Edouard Herriot, who had also received an honorary degree from Glasgow University, and his wife, Blanche.
“Prior to Professor Einstein’s departure, representatives of the Jewish community in Glasgow were introduced to him at the station.”
Visonary and groundbreaking scientist Einstein was born in 1879.
He was brilliant at school, but unconventional, leading one teacher to suggest “he will never amount to anything”.
In 1905, he produced four revolutionary contributions to science, including what would become known as Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity (which demonstrated that measurements of space and time are relative to motion).
On the day of the graduation, The Glasgow Herald reported the public seemed in full approval of the awards, greeting each one with applause, and that there had been no typical graduation day high-jinks for a change.
“The impressiveness of the ceremonial was never once prejudiced by undergraduate humour,” said the report, sternly, “with the students present observing the strict decorum of their seniors.”
In Professor Einstein, said The Herald, “we welcome one whose theory of relativity is already in his lifetime acknowledged to be one of the most remarkable discoveries of any scientist ... he is already enthroned among those whose names shall never die.”