Desmond Kempson

Desmond John Kempson
Desmond Kempson
Nicknames	Odd Bod, Disco Des
Born	1927 (age 98–99)
Education	St Paul's Cheltenham; London (BSc 1967)
Roles	Head of Science
Years at BGS	1973-c1987
Departments	Science
Subjects	Physics
Notable work(s)	Radio and Electronics Society, Astronomical Society
Children	Alison; S Kempson

Desmond John Kempson was a teacher of Physics at Boston Grammar School (1973-c1987).

Minor Disasters

The following catalogue of disasters in Desmond Kempson's Physics classes was supplied by Pat Everitt.

• while demonstrating centripetal force with a bucket of water, the handle broke;
• while demonstrating how friction generates heat by running Andrew Elsom up and down the bench, the subject's head became impaled on a gas tap;
• someone dropped the glass bottled Radon generator, smashing it and causing radio-active powder to go everywhere. The laboratory was evacuated;
• Mr Kempson touched the Van de Graaff generator to prove how quickly it lost it's charge, but not on this occasion;
• someone dropped a bottle of mercury which vanished into the floor and appeared a bit later in the chemistry labs via the ceiling. The laboratory was evacuated;
• while electroplating items with copper sulphate someone used a (mainly magnesium) pencil sharpener, thus causing a chemical reaction that quickly filled the entire laboratory with hydrogen. The laboratory was evacuated.