BY any measure, the list of the guests at Glasgow University’s graduation ceremony during its fifth centenary celebrations in 1951 was a highly distinguished one.
Among those who received honorary degrees at St Andrew’s Hall were the Nobel-winning physicist, Prof Niels Bohr, one of the century’s greatest scientists; Sir John Cockcroft, director of Britain’s Atomic Energy Research Establishment; the writer and traveller, Freya Stark; Lord Cooper, the Lord Justice General; and Sir Oliver Franks, British ambassador to the U.S. and a former Professor of Moral Philosophy at the university.
The Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, also received an honorary degree. He had been due to address the assembly but a change of plan delayed his speech by 24 hours, and Lord Reith, the founder of the BBC, deputised for him.
The Glasgow Herald reported that Lord Reith offered an interesting - idiosyncratic, even - piece of advice to Mr Attlee for him to take back to London: “If ever he is puzzled for a reply to a supplementary question in the House of Commons, I commend the profound but enigmatic philosophy of the Glasgow answer - ‘aye, uh-huh’. If the Prime Minister experiments with that in the House of Commons, I am sure the result will surprise him.”
In his speech the following day Mr Attlee praised Scottish higher education, but sadly there is no record of his reaction, if any, to Lord Reith’s advice.
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