Sir John AndersonBorn 8 Jul 1882; died 4 Jan 1958 at age 75.Sir John Anderson, Viscount Waverley was a Scottish politician known for the Anderson shelter during WW II, the type of civil defence air-raid shelter built in gardens of houses. At university, he first studied chemistry, but turned to government for his lifelong career. By Jun 1938, he was a newly-elected M.P. addressing air-raid precautions in his first speech. As a Cabinet minister (Oct 1938) he started production of the Anderson bomb shelter, designed at his request by Sir William Paterson. Over two million of these bomb shelters were built by the time of the Blitz. The shelter, a 6-ft (1.8m) tall inverted U-shape formed from corrugated steel panels, was half-buried in the ground and covered with earth. Four to six people could shelter in the 6½ × 4½ ft structure (2 × 1.4 m). Anderson was replaced on 8 Oct 1940, and his project was superceded by Herbert Morrison's ideas.« |
