At the age of 35, he was made Professor of Mathematics at King’s College London, a post which he was to occupy for 16 years before being translated to Titular Professor in 1971, Emeritus since 1985. Together, in the 1950s, Bondi, Hoyle and Gold would cause controversy when they proposed the “steady-state” theory for the origin of the universe, which challenged the idea that the universe had begun with the explosion of a super atom (what Hoyle called the “big bang” theory). He and other internees, including his lifelong friend Max Perutz and Tommy Gold, a Trinity undergraduate who would later become Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, educated one another. Soon, good sense in government prevailed and in 1942 Bondi returned to work in the Admiralty on the refinement of radar techniques, which brought him into contact with Fred Hoyle, and shortly afterwards they were joined by Tommy Gold. Family was all- important to Bondi, who in 1947 married Christine Stockman, herself a talented science teacher.In 1940, having completed Part III of the Cambridge Maths Tripos, Bondi found himself interned and sent to Canada Actually, this was no personal disaster.

He sent them a telegram telling them to get out at once and they were able to join him in Cambridge. But it was characteristic of his demonic energy that Bondi should have shown such amazing initiative for a schoolboy. On arrival in Cambridge, he gained the reputation of being prodigiously clever.In November 1938, reading the British press, Bondi realised the peril in which his Jewish parents in Vienna were soon going to find themselves; they were unaware of the situation, since the Nazis controlled the Austrian press. On the contrary, amazingly, he arranged as a schoolboy at the Realgymnasium in Vienna to obtain entrance to Trinity College, Cambridge, for the very good reason that he wanted to study under Sir Arthur Eddington, Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge and one of the foremost mathematicians of the age.Bondi said that it had helped that he had the endorsement of the great Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann and the supportive goodwill of the physicists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner. Quite unlike many Austrian and German Jews who arrived in Britain in the 1930s, Bondi did not come as a refugee.

And every discerning politician, of whatever party, and senior civil servant did listen. Lord Healey says: “The big thing about Hermann was that he was a scientist who had a sense of social responsibility.”Hermann Bondi was born in 1919 in Vienna, the son of Samuel Bondi, a medical practitioner who specialised in the problems of the heart. His Viennese-accented English only served to make his structured sentences more compelling to those who listened. Hermann Bondi was immensely influential in many aspects of the public life of Britain. As Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, 1983-90, and, before that, as Professor of Mathematics at King’s College London, as Director of the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), and as Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Defence and of the Department of Energy, Bondi was among the most significant achievers of the second half of the 20th century.
In clarity of expression, speed of thought and precision at presenting an informed point of view, he was unmatched. Hermann Bondi, mathematician and astronomer: born Vienna 1 November 1919; Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge 1943-49 and 1952-54; Assistant Lecturer in Mathematics, Cambridge University 1945-48, University Lecturer 1948-54; Professor of Mathematics, King’s College London 1954-71, Fellow 1968, Titular Professor 1971-85 (Emeritus); FRS 1959; Director-General, European Space Research Organisation 1967-71; Chief Scientific Adviser, Ministry of Defence 1971-77; KCB 1973; Chief Scientist, Department of Energy 1977-80; Chairman and Chief Executive, NERC 1980-84; Master, Churchill College, Cambridge 1983-90, Fellow 1990-2005; married 1947 Christine Stockman (two sons, three daughters); died Cambridge 10 September 2005.

He acted as consultant on national accounts for the Office for National Statistics, and his interest and skill in bridge was undiminished.Robin Lynch. For many years he faced the considerable personal demands with the same quiet fortitude and understanding that he had brought to his professional career. His later years encompassed a re-flowering of his social and professional interests. He found solace in new friends and companions and his partner Ann was with him throughout his mercifully brief last illness. In his farewell note, he said in typically modest but characteristically straightforward fashion,I do not feel it would be unfair to claim that, in fact, we have put into practice during this recent period many of the things which, in the past, others have talked about but not actually managed to put into effect. The reorganisation and bringing together the CSO and BSO [the Business Statistics Office] into a single department, and the work on setting up an inter-departmental business register, rather than simply saying it would be a good idea, are two examples of what I had in mind.In retirement, Jack Hibbert was almost immediately faced with the challenge that his wife Joan’s affliction with Alzheimer’s disease brought.