Mary Stopes-Roe

Mary Stopes-Roe was the last surviving child of Barnes Wallis, the legendary World War II engineer whose “bouncing bombs” brought Germany’s war machine to a grounding halt in 1943. Wallis used his children to help develop the munition, asking them to play with marbles and see how high they could “bounce” after being fired with a catapult. 

Stopes-Roe married the son of birth control pioneer Marie Stopes (who was aghast at the idea of her child procreating with a short-sighted woman) but it was only in the 1980s that she began collating her father’s correspondence and writings, eventually becoming his posthumous archivist and serving as president of the Barnes Wallis Foundation.

Mary Stopes-Roe
October 7, 1927 – May 10, 2019
Died aged 91 (unique hit)