He played a leading role in early laser research but today is best known for the 30-year struggle to secure US patent rights
He played a leading role in early laser research, but today is best known for the 30-year struggle to secure US patent rights on the laser that eventually made him a rich man. Born in 1920 in Manhattan, Gould was the son of Kenneth Miller Gould, the long-time editor of Scholastic magazine, but it was his mother who introduced him to building things. A resourceful man all his life, Rice taught himself to play the piano and the electronic keyboard, which he did with some skill.When I interviewed him for my book The Last Post, which records the final words of the last British veterans and is to be published this November, Rice told me:Even though I still enjoy life, I sometimes feel as though I've had enough. I know that one day Jesus will come and take me to Elsie.His death leaves only eight British survivors of the First World War.Max Arthur. Richard Gordon Gould, physicist: born New York 17 July 1920; married first Glen Fulwider (marriage dissolved 1953), secondly 1955 Ruth Hill (marriage dissolved), thirdly Marilyn Appel; died New York 16 September 2005. He was cared for by the staff of Tandy Court in Birmingham, and his consolation was the mouth organ which he learned to play at the age of 10 and with which he entertained the troops in the trenches - little thinking that 90 years later he would be entertaining the residents of a home in the Midlands. He worked until he was 71 in order to support his youngest son through college. He then moved to the Isle of Wight and 13 years later returned to Birmingham to a residential home.After 60 happy years of marriage Elsie died in 1997 and this left him bereft.
His eldest son, David, recalled his father's tear-stained face after the devastating bombing raid on Coventry on the night of 15 November 1940. During this time he met his wife Elsie who, along with his newfound religion, helped to restore his faith in himself. "Elsie made me feel very proud," he said towards the end of his life. He became a lay preacher and his four sons were raised in the Christian faith, which was centred on the Gospel Hall in Northfield, Birmingham.During the Second World War he journeyed daily to Coventry to the factory of Lea Francis, the car manufacturers, who were making the Halifax bomber.
He moved into "digs" where his landlord was a regular churchgoer and it was largely due to long conversations with him that Rice also became a devout Christian. While the rest of his battalion returned to England he recuperated in France and was later taken by ship and train to a hospital in Newcastle from where he was demobbed. This ended a period of his life of which he was deeply reluctant to talk.At the age of 22 he left Stockton to take a position with the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge. Because of the severe overcrowding at his base he had to sleep in a water-filled shell-hole As a result he was taken seriously ill with trench fever. Suddenly, one of the more sensitive among us called out in a very loud voice: "Give him a chance, chaps!" The firing ceased and the sentry ran off. We all felt very emotional and strangely moved.After the Armistice he was in Namur in Belgium for several days of celebrations.
Rice recalled:Although we were under orders to hold fire, someone in our sector couldn't resist taking a shot at this lone man. At once this triggered a massive discharge of arms along the line. The German soldier, in the face of certain death, went into a panic He zigzagged, ducked and dived to avoid the hail of bullets. When the gun was finally stabilised and the Germans were almost on top of us, I pulled the trigger and eight Germans fell dead I didn't have to aim, they were so near They ran into my bullets That was just my job as a soldier. You were there to fight the enemy, feelings didn't come into it.On another occasion his battalion was spread out down a lane alongside a railway embankment when in the moonlight a lone German sentry came into view, patrolling the railway line.