In England in the late 1940s, John Cockcroft’s Harwell laboratory thrived on committees. One of the most senior committees, the Power Steering Committee, sounds and was dry as bone, but was exceedingly important. Perusing its minutes one day, whose name should I notice as its chairman but that of “Dr. K. Fuchs.” The good doctor is, of course, Klaus Fuchs, one of the most important Soviet spies, not nabbed until 1950!
NOTE
Power Steering Committee. 1947. PSC Meeting 11, Apr. 21, 1947 minutes. AB 12/57, National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom.