Oliver Joseph Lodge

Leslie Ward ('Spy') draws the physicist Sir Oliver Lodge in profile, hands thrust into the pockets of a rumpled grey lounge suit — the posture of a man absorbed in thought rather than display. The caption reads 'Birmingham University', anchoring Lodge to his role as the institution's first principal. Ward's line catches the dome of Lodge's bald crown, the sweep of long hair behind the ear, and the full white moustache of a Victorian gentleman-scientist grown distinguished. There is no ethnic caricature here; the humor is affectionate and social, gently mocking the distracted, slightly stooped air of a man more at home with electromagnetic theory and psychical research than with the society pages that carried his portrait.