Walter Marshall, Baron Marshall of Goring

Walter Charles Marshall, Baron Marshall of Goring (1932 to 1996) was a theoretical physicist and a leader of the energy sector in the United Kingdom. He studied mathematical physics at Birmingham University and took his doctorate under Rudolf Peierls. He joined the Theoretical Physics Division at Harwell in 1954, succeeded Brian Flowers as its head in 1960 and became Director of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in 1968. He chaired the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority from 1981 and the Central Electricity Generating Board from 1983, where as a champion of nuclear power he led a task force on the Sizewell B design. He is reported as sceptical of fusion, calling it an idea with infinite possibility and zero chance of success. He was knighted in 1982 and made a life peer in 1985 after the board kept the lights on through the miners strike.