Alyson Bailes
Angela Bury writes: I was very moved to read the obituary (May 3) of Alyson Bailes. I was at school with Alyson in 1966 when, in the senior sixth form, she edited the annual school magazine. Alyson was modest and unassuming, wearing her academic brilliance lightly. A group of us wrote a spoof school prospectus for potential publication and presented it to Alyson as editor. In the section devoted to prize-giving, we had noted, wryly, that the prize for academic achievement would be “awarded annually to Alyson Bailes”. Alyson took it very well, with her usual dignity. Later in the year, at the school prize-giving, one of the speakers declared that, until reading the school magazine, he had not realised that such strong opinions were held by the pupils. The magazine had benefited from Alyson’s touch.
Lord Wright of Richmond writes: Your obituary of Alyson Bailes can have left the reader in little doubt that she was both a remarkably gifted diplomat and an exceptionally able linguist. As far as I know, she was the first, and probably the only, member of the diplomatic service to have got full marks in both the home civil service selection board and the foreign service board.
Sir Harry Kroto
Dr David B Cook writes:I was a graduate student in the chemistry department at Sheffield university at the same time as Harry Kroto in the 1960s. Harry worked in a concrete bunker in the basement of the building with a large spectroscope bolted to a huge concrete block. The equipment was so large that Harry had to squeeze to be able to adjust the settings. He often worked all night and was once reprimanded for giving the night porter a nasty fright when he was found asleep in a lecture theatre — great days!
Advertisement
Lord Walton of Detchant
Dr Michael Cullen writes: John Walton (obituary, April 28) wore many hats. In 1972, I was interviewed for a post in his muscular dystrophy research laboratories in Newcastle upon Tyne. After the interview, he told me that, as the head of the department of neurology, he would like to employ me, but that he would have to confer with the dean of medicine. He did not foresee any problem, however, as he was also the dean of medicine — so he would have to go off and discuss it with himself. I stayed there for 30 years.