He initiated the development of the Anderson shelter, a small sheet metal cylinder made of prefabricated pieces which could be assembled in a garden and partially buried to protect against bomb blast.

In July 1941 as Lord President of the Council he was appointed as minister responsible for the British effort to build an atomic bomb, known as the Tube Alloys project.

On 29 August they were bathing in the River Ythan when a freak wave suddenly swept Nettie Anderson and Chrissie's sister Nellie Mackenzie into deep water.

At the time this was the normal career path for graduates of the University of Edinburgh, and his father advised him that if he wished to marry Chrissie the Civil Service would offer greater job security.

"[12] Following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Anderson was involved in securing supplies of medical and surgical implements that had hitherto been imported from Germany.

[13] Lloyd George became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 7 December 1916, and one of his first acts was to create a Ministry of Shipping under Sir Joseph Maclay, and Morant agreed to release Anderson to become its secretary on 8 January 1917.

But not for long; in March Sir Edward Troup, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, retired and Anderson was appointed to succeed him.

At the time the Home office had seven divisions, each with its own Assistant Secretary: Aliens Control, Children and Probation, Crime, Factories and Shops, Channel Islands, Northern Ireland, and Police.

[31] Appreciating that this might only temporarily stave off a major industrial dispute, the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, appointed Anderson to the chairmanship of an inter-departmental committee to prepare for one.

Each department was allocated a specific role: the Board of Trade stockpiled food and coal, the Ministry of Transport arranged for distribution, and the Home Office was responsible for keeping law and order.

[31] When Winston Churchill suggested sending the Army to the London docks to protect the supplies of paper needed to print the British Gazette, Anderson cut him off with: "I would beg the chancellor of the exchequer to stop talking nonsense".

On 3 March, Anderson had lunch at Buckingham Palace with King George V, who made him an additional Knight Grand Commander of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE).

The chief source of revenue was collected under the terms of the Permanent Settlement of Bengal that had been concluded by Lord Cornwallis in 1793 and taxed landowners known as zamindars based on the value of their land.

Anderson negotiated a revision of the financial arrangements with Sir Otto Niemeyer, under which the provinces retained half of their income tax and jute duty receipts and provincial debts to the central government were cancelled.

On 8 May 1934 a would-be assassin fired at Anderson but the bullet passed between him and Nellie Mackenzie,[43][44] and the man was wrestled to the ground by Charles William Tandy-Green.

[51] The Government of India Act 1935 was scheduled to become operative on 1 April 1937, soon after his five-year term of office was due to expire, but at the request of the Secretary of State for India, the Marquess of Zetland, and the viceroy, the Marquess of Linlithgow, Anderson agreed to a six-month extension in order to oversee the transition to self-government,[52] but declined a request from Zetland for his term to be further extended.

[53] The sudden death of Ramsay MacDonald on 9 November 1937 created a casual vacancy in his Scottish Universities seat in the House of Commons, and the Unionist Party now needed to find another candidate.

He took his seat on 2 March and, after a holiday in Switzerland with Mary Anderson and Nellie Mackenzie, made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 1 June.

Before leaving Calcutta he accepted a directorship from the Midland Bank, and after his return to England he joined the boards of Vickers, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and the Employers Liability Assurance Corporation.

Paterson worked with his co-director, Oscar Carl (Karl) Kerrison, and together they devised a small sheet metal cylinder made of prefabricated pieces which could be assembled in a garden and partially buried to protect against bomb blast.

However, as the tide of war turned against the UK, the pressure to act against aliens grew, and on 16 May some 3,000 men whose reliability was classed as uncertain were interned, and in June 3,500 women and children were sent to the Isle of Man.

Although not a member of a political party, Churchill thought Anderson had the abilities to lead the National Government, and that an independent figure was essential to the maintenance of the coalition.

[78] After Germany surrendered on 7 May 1945,[79] Churchill unsuccessfully attempted to broker a continuation of the wartime coalition government until after the end of the war with Japan, which was thought at the time to be over a year away.

Anderson retained his role of Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Churchill caretaker ministry, and remained in the post until the Labour victory in the general election in July 1945.

[80] On 29 June 1945, Churchill had initialled a minute from Anderson, seeking "authority to instruct our representatives on the Combined Policy Committee to give their concurrence for the use of the atomic bomb against Japan.

"[81] After the bombing of Hiroshima, Anderson gave a broadcast on the BBC Home Service on 7 August 1945 in which he described the challenges and potentialities of nuclear energy in layman's terms.

On 9 November, he accompanied Attlee to Washington, D.C., for talks on atomic energy with President Harry S. Truman and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King.

He resumed his membership of the boards of ICI, Vickers and the Employers' Life Assurance Corporation that he had given up when he became a minister, but not the Midland Bank, which in those days would have been considered improper for a former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Port of London Authority chairman had often been part time and unpaid in the past, but now that a full-time role was called for Anderson insisted on being paid, and was given an annual salary of £7,500 (equivalent to £393,000 in 2023).

Ava used the Port Authority's yacht, the St Katharine, to hold party cruises on the river around the London Docks for special guests, and invitations were highly sought after.