1953
Dear Sir,
Rosalind E. Franklin, I.C.I. Fellowship
I would like to support very strongly the application for the extension of the Fellowship of Miss R.E. Franklin for a further year. The question of the transfer of Miss Franklin's Fellowship from King's College to Birkbeck College was first suggested last summer but, due to the way in which her work on nucleic acid structure developed and the extremely significant results it was yielding, her transfer was effectively postponed until this Spring.
I had been very anxious to get her assistance in a new attack on problems of virus structure, for which we have particular experience and facilities here, and Miss Franklin is already constructing special apparatus for this purpose. It is now clear, however, that she cannot expect to start effective observations until the autumn and that results are unlikely to be obtained until well into 1954.
I have every confidence that here, as in other problems she has investigated, Miss Franklin will break new ground but I feel she should be given the chance to do so without interruption and therefore hope that it will be possible for her Fellowship grant to be extended for a further year.
Yours sincerely,
J.D. Bernal.