University of Auckland

Ben Gascoigne's parents met and married in Levin, New Zealand, just before the First World War. They soon moved to Napier, where Gascoigne was born in 1915.[1] He attended Auckland Grammar School,[2] and won a scholarship to Auckland University College (now the University of Auckland) a year before he was due to finish high school.[3] Faced with a choice between studying history or the sciences, he chose the latter because he had a severe stammer and thought that it would be less of an impediment.[3] He completed both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's qualification in science, securing Honours in both mathematics and physics, finishing his studies in 1937.[1][4] Despite these achievements, he did not consider himself to be practically trained, saying: "I was still very much a theorist, with no practical physics at all. The professor in Auckland used to wince when I walked past the cupboard in which the good instruments were kept!"[1]
In 1933, while studying at the University, he met his future wife Rosalie Norah King Walker, although they did not marry for another decade.[5][6] Rosalie completed a Bachelor of Arts while Gascoigne was studying in Auckland; she also studied at Auckland's teacher training college while he was in Bristol.[5]


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