Anniversary Dinner 1951

The Anniversary Dinner for 1951 was held at the Dorchester Hotel on St Andrew’s day. The toast of ‘The Royal Society of London’ was proposed by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Viscount Portal of Hungerford, K.G., O.M., who said : ‘ Mr President, Your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen : ‘ I feel very greatly honoured by your invitation, Mr President, to propose the toast of the Royal Society of London, and I thank you most sincerely for the privilege. ‘ To one like myself who has always been conscious of an even greater lack of aptitude for science than for other kinds of learning, the occasion must be rather formidable, but I can at least truthfully claim to share the general feeling of respect and pride, almost of reverence, in which this ancient and most illustrious of scientific bodies is held throughout this country and the civilized world. ` I had every chance to appreciate, during the war, what the application of science meant to the power of the fighting services, in, for instance, electronics, jet engines and '' operational research ”, and then, in 1946, the Government put me in charge of the atomic energy project in this country, which gave me the opportunity and the privilege of associating for more than five years with some of our most distinguished men in nuclear physics and other fields of science.