Ben Gascoigne 's parents met and married in Levin , New Zealand , just before the First World War . They soon moved to Napier , where Gascoigne was born in 1915 . He attended Auckland Grammar School , and won a scholarship to Auckland University College ( now the University of Auckland ) a year before he was due to finish high school . Faced with a choice between studying history or the sciences , he chose the latter because he had a severe stammer and thought that it would be less of an impediment . He completed both a Bachelor 's degree and a Master 's qualification in science , securing Honours in both mathematics and physics , finishing his studies in 1937 . Despite these achievements , he did not consider himself to be practically trained , saying : " I was still very much a theorist , with no practical physics at all . The professor in Auckland used to wince when I walked past the cupboard in which the good instruments were kept ! " In 1933 , while studying at the University , he met his future wife Rosalie Norah King Walker , although they did not marry for another decade . Rosalie completed a Bachelor of Arts while Gascoigne was studying in Auckland ; she also studied at Auckland 's teacher training college while he was in Bristol . Although Gascoigne had always intended to study mathematics at Cambridge , an event occurred that significantly shaped his career . In 1931 , an earthquake in New Zealand killed Michael Hiatt Baker , a young traveller from Bristol , and his parents established a postgraduate scholarship in his memory , for study at the University of Bristol , which Gascoigne won and took up in 1938 . During his thesis studies at Bristol , Gascoigne developed a diffraction theory of the Foucault test that is used for evaluating the shape of large telescope mirrors . He completed his doctorate in physics in 1941 , but by then war had broken out in Europe , and he had already returned to New Zealand on the last available ship
earthquake in New Zealand
1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake
Ben Gascoigne