The scientific adviser who made bombing a field of operational research
From his analysis of the Sicilian railways, he concluded that disabling locomotives and repair facilities could halt the network as a whole.
Solly Zuckerman was a British zoologist and public servant who helped pioneer operational research by bringing scientific observation and experiment into government policy. During the Second World War he studied bombing effects and drew on Mediterranean evidence to devise the Transportation Plan, which targeted the French railway system before the Normandy landings. The plan helped delay German reinforcement, while also leaving a record of civilian casualties and continuing controversy over bombing's effectiveness. After the war he became the first Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government, institutionalising the place of science in public policy.
Career timeline
- 1926Graduated in zoology from the University of Cape Town
- 1928–1932Research anatomist at the Zoological Society of London
- 1934–1945Professor of anatomy at the University of Oxford
- 1943–1945Scientific Director of the British Bombing Survey Unit and Allied air adviser
- 1946–1968Professor of anatomy at the University of Birmingham
- 1960–1966Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence
- 1964–1971First Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government
- 1977–1984President of the Zoological Society of London
- 1971Created Baron Zuckerman of Burnham Thorpe, a life peer
The investigative journalist who exposed apartheid, the communist revolutionary who endured 117 days of solitary confinement
“In prison you see only the moves of the enemy. Prison is the hardest place to fight a battle.” — 117 Days (1965)
White anti-apartheid activist and journalist who worked within the SACP and ANC. As editor-in-chief of the progressive Guardian, she exposed racial segregation and served on the Freedom Charter drafting committee. A Treason Trial defendant, she became the first white woman detained under the Ninety-Day Law; her solitary confinement produced the memoir 117 Days. In exile she became a scholar of African liberation movements and was assassinated in Maputo by an apartheid police parcel bomb.
Career timeline
- 1946BA Social Science, University of the Witwatersrand; co-founded Federation of Progressive Students
- 1946–1950sEditor-in-chief of The Guardian; after its banning, relaunched as Clarion, New Age, and others
- 1949Married Joe Slovo
- 1953Helped found the Congress of Democrats (COD), the Congress Alliance's white wing
- 1955Freedom Charter drafting committee member; banned from attending the Congress of the People at Kliptown
- 1955Editor of the radical political journal Fighting Talk
- 1956–1961Treason Trial defendant alongside 155 others; all acquitted
- 1963First white woman detained under the Ninety-Day Law; 117 days solitary confinement; later wrote 117 Days
- 1964Exiled to London; active in the British Anti-Apartheid Movement
- 1964–1970sEdited biographies of Mandela, Mbeki, and Odinga; researched African liberation movements
- 1970Published The Barrel of a Gun: Political Power in Africa and the Coup d'état
- 1972–1978Research Fellow at Manchester; lecturer in development studies at Durham
- 1978–1982Research director, Centre of African Studies, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo
- 1982.08.17Assassinated by a South African Police parcel bomb; presidents and ambassadors from 34 countries attended her funeral
The SACP leader who kept the revolutionary flame alive after laying down arms
“We are negotiating to create better conditions for socialism. I am a communist.” — Interview shortly before his assassination, 1993
General Secretary of the South African Communist Party and Chief of Staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, he led the left wing of the liberation movement from armed struggle through the turn to negotiations. His assassination by a far-right immigrant in 1993 nearly derailed South Africa's democratic transition, but instead galvanized the final agreement on the 1994 elections.
Career timeline
- 1957Joined ANC Youth League at age 15
- 1959–1961Studied English, Latin and classics at Fort Hare University
- 1961Joined the South African Communist Party
- 1962Joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)
- 1963Arrested; fled to Lesotho; adopted the name Chris
- 1967–1969Zimbabwean War of Liberation: joint MK-ZIPRA operations
- 1969Co-signed the 'Hani Memorandum' criticizing ANC/MK leadership
- 1974Elected to ANC National Executive Committee
- 1982MK Chief of Staff; directed guerrilla operations from Lusaka
- 1990Returned permanently to South Africa after ANC unbanning
- 1991.12Elected SACP General Secretary, succeeding Joe Slovo
- 1993.4.10Shot dead outside his Boksburg home by a far-right immigrant
