Letter: Margaret Burbidge obituary

Margaret Burbidge in October 1971, shortly before she was seconded from the University of California, San Diego, to head the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux, East Sussex. Photograph: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego

I first met Margaret Burbidge in the early 1970s on summer visits to Fred Hoyle’s Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge. As director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux, she wanted to move the 98in Isaac Newton telescope to the Canary Islands. The UK made a big mistake in taking 10 years to see the sense of this, thereby losing Margaret back to the US.

She was a lovely person – warm, generous and fun. It was a great pleasure to have known her.