Bishop Road Primary School.

This week it was announced in the New Year's honours list that Peter Higgs is to be made a Companion of Honour in recognition of his work in the 1960s. The companions are a select group of 65 and you have to wait for one of them to die for there to be a space into which you can be elevated. Peter Higgs, an Edinburgher, is he of Higgs Boson fame who is due, according to those in the know, to be made a Nobel laureate in the near future; in his youth he was inspired by one, Paul Dirac.
Dirac lived a mile or two from where I write this missive and went to Bishop Road Primary School (situated at the junction of Bishop Road and Cambridge Road, the latter perhaps named in honour of Dirac's university) and, somewhere on the premises, there is a commemorative plaque bearing his name. I went along to see if I could find it. It was a disappointment to find the premises locked and defended with gates and high spiky railings such that I would have to climb at least two of them to gain access to anything that appeared remotely promising. I could just see a blue plaque on the far side of two locked gates but, on inspecting an enlarged telephoto shot, it proved to be inscribed with the message:

"Archibald Leach
A pupil at this school
1909 - 1915
He gained great fame as
CARY GRANT"

I'm guessing that the Dirac plaque is round the corner to the left.

Paul Dirac (1902 - 1984) was right up there with Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger (with whom he shared a Nobel prize) and the rest of that crowd (dare I include Albert Einstein?) working on the fundamental principles of quantum theory and sub-atomic physics. After primary school he went on to Cotham Grammar School (where his father taught French) (my brother-in-law was also a Cotham boy) and then to Cambridge. He, like his father, was autistic, a condition that is unusually common amongst great theoretical scientists, perhaps because people with this condition tend to have clear analytical brains unencumbered be emotional prejudices. I find it very sad that such an intellect is largely unknown in his own country and that attempts to commemorate him are hidden under the proverbial bushel.

For further information go to Wikipedia

Returning briefly to young Archie, when in the area he often took his mother to the "local" frequented by TOL and spouse. What is that quote about "six hand-shakes away"?