By Friday 01 June, a more measured account of the inquest was published
in the Cambridge Independent, an account which we have relied on heavily
here. Even so it carried the gaudy headline;
‘EXAMINATION LEADS TO SUICIDE.
Cambridge Student Who Gassed Himself
I AM A FAILURE—Pathetic Last Note
By the standards of the day, the reports of Peter’s death went ‘viral’. For such
a private family, the public exposure of their grief and the nature of their son’s
death must have been so difficult to bear. For his friends at Cambridge,
Peter’s Obituary appeared in the Sidney Sussex ‘Annual’ just before the new
Autumn term that year. Short and uninformative, its very reticence tells of a
life unfulfilled. It read (Plate 16.6);
Clara’s death haunted Fritz Haber for the rest of his life. He knew he had
made serious mistakes and none more so than the neglect of his first wife. For
Robert and Emily too, an inevitable feeling of guilt must have overwhelmed
them when they read in Peter’s letter, ‘Now I have made a mess of the
chemistry paper. I am a failure …’ For some reason Peter had felt his despair
‘coming for years …’ Was he too proud to accept another special examination? Had he chosen to study science simply because of his father? Did
Haber’s presence in Cambridge, his father’s friendship with the ‘great man’,
and the expectation of his friends finally inflict a pressure on him to achieve a
standing in chemistry which was beyond his capabilities? Whatever the turmoil in the young man’s mind, by ‘bottling it up’ he left the same legacy of
guilt to Robert and Emily as Clara left to Haber; a guilt that never eases, one
that comes in the ‘black dog’ hours of the night, when you hold something of
theirs or pass their room. But it’s at its worst when you realise that time and
time again you lost the chance to hug and to hold, to let them know that
no-matter what happened everything would be alright, because with
PETER WALTER LE ROSSIGNOL
Peter Walter le Rossignol died in Cambridge on May 25 th , 1934 at the age of
twenty and in his second year of residence. He came to us from Brighton
College and was reading for the Natural Sciences Tripos. He was a member of
the Boat Club, and his death was a great shock to his friends.
Plate 16.6 The entry in the Sidney Sussex Annual October 1934. Courtesy of Sidney
Sussex and Mr. Nicholas Rogers
390
D. Sheppard
in the Cambridge Independent, an account which we have relied on heavily
here. Even so it carried the gaudy headline;
‘EXAMINATION LEADS TO SUICIDE.
Cambridge Student Who Gassed Himself
I AM A FAILURE—Pathetic Last Note
By the standards of the day, the reports of Peter’s death went ‘viral’. For such
a private family, the public exposure of their grief and the nature of their son’s
death must have been so difficult to bear. For his friends at Cambridge,
Peter’s Obituary appeared in the Sidney Sussex ‘Annual’ just before the new
Autumn term that year. Short and uninformative, its very reticence tells of a
life unfulfilled. It read (Plate 16.6);
Clara’s death haunted Fritz Haber for the rest of his life. He knew he had
made serious mistakes and none more so than the neglect of his first wife. For
Robert and Emily too, an inevitable feeling of guilt must have overwhelmed
them when they read in Peter’s letter, ‘Now I have made a mess of the
chemistry paper. I am a failure …’ For some reason Peter had felt his despair
‘coming for years …’ Was he too proud to accept another special examination? Had he chosen to study science simply because of his father? Did
Haber’s presence in Cambridge, his father’s friendship with the ‘great man’,
and the expectation of his friends finally inflict a pressure on him to achieve a
standing in chemistry which was beyond his capabilities? Whatever the turmoil in the young man’s mind, by ‘bottling it up’ he left the same legacy of
guilt to Robert and Emily as Clara left to Haber; a guilt that never eases, one
that comes in the ‘black dog’ hours of the night, when you hold something of
theirs or pass their room. But it’s at its worst when you realise that time and
time again you lost the chance to hug and to hold, to let them know that
no-matter what happened everything would be alright, because with
PETER WALTER LE ROSSIGNOL
Peter Walter le Rossignol died in Cambridge on May 25 th , 1934 at the age of
twenty and in his second year of residence. He came to us from Brighton
College and was reading for the Natural Sciences Tripos. He was a member of
the Boat Club, and his death was a great shock to his friends.
Plate 16.6 The entry in the Sidney Sussex Annual October 1934. Courtesy of Sidney
Sussex and Mr. Nicholas Rogers
390
D. Sheppard