He and Fred Hoyle were jointly awarded the Mayhew Prize in 1936, as the students showing the greatest distinction in applied mathematics.
This did not work out well either, so Rushbrooke accepted the offer of a research post at the University College, Dundee, for the year 1939-40.
He then secured a DSIR senior research award, enabling him to join Wynne-Jones’s group for the next three years.
He took on very capable researchers in several fields, such as Cyril Domb (two-dimensional Ising models), A J Wakefield (graph configurations on crystals) and Hubert Ian Scoins[3] (theory of liquids).
After Thelma’s illness, and a period in hospital himself, he moved to his new job in 1951, where he remained until retirement as emeritus professor in 1980.