Eric Henry Stoneley Burhop was born on 31 January 1911 at Hobart, Tasmania, of parents who were Salvation Army officers in poor financial circumstances. Because of the itinerant nature of his parents’ work he often had to change schools. Nevertheless, it soon became apparent that he possessed ability far above the average and his parents were prepared to sacrifice much to give him an opportunity to pursue his education through secondary school and early university until he was able to pay his own way with scholarships. He attended Ballarat and then Melbourne High School before entering Melbourne University as an engineering student in 1928. After one year he changed over to read science, specializing in physics. In 1929 he was awarded an Aitchison Bursary which assisted him financially through the remainder of his undergraduate career. He graduated B.Sc. with first class honours in physics in 1931 and then undertook an M .Sc. course in that subject. At the same time, because of his mathematical ability and interest, he completed the final honours course in mathematics to obtain the B.A. degree in 1932. Professor T . H. Laby, F .R .S., head of the Physics Department at Melbourne University, who took a close interest in promising students, realized that Burhop was exceptional and encouraged him to work towards a scientific career. The research problem for the M .Sc. which Laby proposed was quite a challenging one for the time— the determ ination of the probability of K shell ionization by electron impact, from measurements of the intensity of X -ray emission as a function of electron energy.
