The Tragedy of Genius

Sometimes the exploits and antics of an individual really capture my interest and one such person featured in a recent BBC4 Extra dramatisation was Geoffrey Pyke.

The man may not have been at the forefront of public perception but he contributed greatly to the Nation and particularly so in the rarified times of conflict when a wild and crazy idea often stood a good chance of success, if a measure of that success was the shortening of a war and the saving of countless lives or even a single life.

I have never seen any film footage or audio recordings of Geoffrey Pyke but my generation, 1960's baby boomers, will certainly recall with affection his close relative the scientist Magnus Pyke, flailing arms and exaggerated gesticulations and all. Certain characteristics follow the family lineage and my visualisation and appreciation of Geoffrey Pyke has certainly been helped by my memories of Dr Magnus.

The earlier Pyke was born in 1894. He engendered a reputation for eccentricity and genius in his ideas, inventions and schemes but equally exasperated and frustrated many who came across him, particularly those in authority.

In the first world war he persuaded a Newspaper to infiltrate him into Berlin to report back but he was captured shortly after arriving and had to make an escape from prison and make his way back to the UK. He was however declared a hero by his media employers and lived well off this status.

Between the wars he became self taught in playing the investment market and his scientific system of dabbling in stocks and shares made him a fortune. This he used to open a school where pupils were encouraged to pursue their own interests in a free and easy environment with a non-punishment or reprimand regime. The idea was largely an antidote to his own years in secondary education when he was the victim of remorseless bullying and victimisation. It was a success in its unique way but drained him of his wealth and it was after only a few years that the educational establishment was forced to close.

His aptitude for thinking well out of the box was well suited to the war effort from 1939. His first initiative was to try to oust Adolf Hitler by popular demand and he attempted this by sending students into Nazi Germany, disguised as golfers with clubs and clipboards to try to demonstrate in a public straw poll that Hitler was in fact not at all popular. The failure was inevitable but then hindsight is a wonderful thing.

With genius and individualism comes strange behaviour and traits. Geoffrey Pyke spent most of his working days in his pyjamas and would only eat herring. He was obsessed with not being cramped or constricted by furniture and possessions and he rigged up a series of ropes and pulleys to elevate all of his belongings up to ceiling height to give a clear, open plan and spacious work space during his office hours. I personally like that idea and can see some contemporary applications in modern lifestyles.

From brainstorming, Geoffrey Pyke soon moved on to actual engineered inventions from a motorised sledge to an actual tracked, all terrain vehicle, The Weasel which went into production and with many still mobile and in use well into the post war period in Polar Exploration.

His behaviour and appearance, very much along the lines of a mad professor were not widely accepted particularly in North America here he was seconded on joint research and development projects. He was reputed to have met the Canadian Prime Minister with trouser flies wide open which only added to their mistrust and frustrations of a strange man.

The radio drama that introduced me to Geoffrey Pyke revolved around two of his wartime inventions. These had come about in his time with British Combined Operations- a think-tank reporting back and with the interest of Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten.

Project Habbakuk was to be a huge ocean going aircraft carrier made from reinforced ice. The main constituent of the huge vessel was Pykrete, a mixture of water and wood pulp which when frozen exhibited tremendous strength, durability and stability and was also virtually bomb and torpedo proof. The idea progressed to a prototype on a Canadian Lake and it survived a whole summer. The D Day invasions caused the project to be abandoned although Pykrete had proven to be a workable and viable structural material.

It appears that after this personal disappointment Geoffrey Pyke found it very difficult to reach the same influential people and became forgotten and ignored insite of numerous authoratative writings and consultancy posts in a nation emerging from a crippling war.

.In 1948, increasingly pessimistic and despairing about the world and the direction it was taking he took his own life. His legacy, even to the present day, has not in my opinion really been recognised with due credit and acknowledgement. We can only stand back and speculate on what he may have contributed to the nation and wider world had he reached what may well have been his most fruitful and productive years. We will never know and we are poorer for that fact.