Portrait of Sir William Henry Bragg.

William Bragg was born 1862 at Wigton,Cumberland, UK. He attended Cambridge University, primarily studying mathematics. Bragg became Professorof Mathematics and Physics at the University of Adelaide and lived in Adelaide from 1886 to 1909. In Adelaide he married Gwen, daughter of Charles Todd - the superintendent of telegraphs responsible for the construction of the overland telegraph line. William and Gwen had three children - William Lawrence (known as Lawrence) in 1890, Robert Charles in 1892 and Gwendoline Mary in 1907.

After leaving Adelaide, Bragg returned to England with his family and took up a post at the University of Leeds. Lawrence graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1912 and over the next few years father and son worked on their Nobel Prize winning experimentations using x-rays to determine the structure of crystals. They were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. Also in 1915, Bragg left the University of Leeds to take up the position of Professor of Physics at University College, London.

Bragg was knighted in 1920, awarded the Order of Merit in 1931 and elected President of the Royal Society in 1935. He died on 12 March 1942.

Bragg, W. H. (William Henry), 1862-1942

'Why people sing in bath rooms: science of common sounds', The Times, 5 January 1920, p. 16

Caroe, GM. William Henry Bragg 1862-1942: man and scientist, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978

Grant, Sir Kerr. The life and work of Sir William Bragg, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1952

Jenkin, John. The Bragg family in Adelaide: a pictorial celebration, [Adelaide]: University of Adelaide Foundation in conjunction with La Trobe University, c1986

Jenkin, John G. William and Lawrence Bragg, father and son : the most extraordinary collaboration in science, Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008

Nobel e-museum: See Lawrence Bragg biography and William Bragg biography