Frederick Lindemann, 'The Prof', was the son of an Alsace businessman and an Anglo-American mother. He was brought up in Britain and studied for his PhD in Berlin with Professor Walther Nernst, discoverer of the Third Law of Thermodynamics.

During the First World War Lindemann returned to Britain, joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough and, having learned to fly, took part in the scientific testing of aircraft. He is credited with being the first person to systematically investigate the nature of an aircraft spin and the technique for getting out of it.

In 1919 Lindemann became Professor of Experimental Philosophy (Physics) at Oxford. By the mid-1930s he became acutely concerned at the rise of Hitler and German rearmament, writing and lobbying for British countermeasures and research into air defence. This brought him close to Churchill, who described him as 'the scientific lobe of my brain'. The association was surprising to many for Lindemann was a precise, austere, teetotal vegetarian but 'The Prof' remained Churchill's trusted personal scientific adviser throughout the war.