Obituaries : Lord Zuckerman; Scientist, Wartime Adviser to Churchill

Lord Zuckerman, one of Britain’s top “boffins,” or scientists, in World War II and a counselor to wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, died Thursday. He was 88.

He suffered a heart attack in London, his son, Paul, said.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1904, Solly Zuckerman emigrated to Britain to pursue his scientific studies after training as a doctor. He became a professor of anatomy, working at various universities, until the outbreak of World War II.

He was loaned to the government by Oxford University to advise officials on a range of scientific matters from the effects of bomb blasts to air attack strategy.

After the war, Zuckerman returned to anatomy and university life, holding posts at Birmingham and East Anglia. He later re-entered public service with a series of key jobs, most notably chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defense.

In that role he was among the first to recognize the limitations of nuclear weapons, saying that they could deter but not defend.

His abilities won him the confidence of successive prime ministers including Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath.

Lord Zuckerman was also closely involved in the arts and counted among his friends filmmaker Sir Alfred Hitchcock, the poet E. E. Cummings, and composer George Gershwin and his lyricist brother, Ira.

His other great love was the London Zoo. His connection with the zoo began in 1927 and 50 years later he was made president of the Zoological Society.

His most famous books were “The Social Life of Monkeys and Apes” and “Functional Affinities of Man, Monkeys and Apes.”