Editing Mark Oliphant (section)

== Early life ==
Marcus "Mark" Laurence Elwin Oliphant was born on 8 October 1901 in [[Kent Town, South Australia|Kent Town]], a suburb of Adelaide. His father was Harold George "Baron" Olifent,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210531716 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[[The Express and Telegraph]] |location=South Australia |date=2 November 1901 |access-date=5 April 2020 |page=4 |via=Trove }}</ref> a [[civil servant]] with the [[SA Water|South Australian Engineering and Water Supply Department]] and part-time lecturer in economics with the [[Workers' Educational Association]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56764831 |title=Workers' Educational Association |newspaper=[[The Register (Adelaide)|The Register]] |date=9 October 1928 |access-date=18 July 2012 |page=3 }}</ref><ref name="FRS">{{cite journal| last1 = Bleaney | first1 = B.| author-link = Brebis Bleaney| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2001.0022 | title = Sir Mark (Marcus Laurence Elwin) Oliphant, A.C., K.B.E. 8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000: Elected F.R.S. 1937| journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]]| volume = 47 | pages = 383–393 | year = 2001 | doi-access = free}}</ref> His mother was Beatrice Edith Fanny Oliphant, née Tucker, an artist.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|p=3}}<ref name="Joffe">{{cite web |url=http://www.mickjoffe.com/Sir_Mark_Oliphant |title=Mick Joffe, interview with Sir Mark Oliphant |publisher=Mick Joffe |access-date=30 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202233449/http://www.mickjoffe.com/Sir_Mark_Oliphant |archive-date=2 December 2013 |url-status=live  }}</ref> He was named after [[Marcus Clarke]], the Australian author, and [[Laurence Oliphant (author)|Laurence Oliphant]], the British traveller and mystic. Most people called him Mark; this became official when he was knighted in 1959.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|p=6}} 

He had [[Oliphant brothers|four younger brothers]]: Roland, Keith, Nigel and Donald; all were registered at birth with the surname Olifent. His grandfather, Harry Smith Olifent (7 November 1848 – 30 January 1916) was a clerk at the [[Adelaide GPO]], and his great-grandfather James Smith Olifent (c. 1818 – 21 January 1890) and his wife Eliza (c. 1821 – 18 October 1881) left their native [[Kent]] for South Australia aboard the barque ''Ruby'', arriving in March 1854. He would later be appointed Superintendent of the [[Adelaide Destitute Asylum]], and Eliza Olifent was appointed Matron of the establishment in 1865.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31848647 |title=Topics of the Day |newspaper=[[The South Australian Advertiser]] |location=South Australia |date=14 April 1865 |access-date=5 April 2020 |page=2 |via=Trove }}</ref> Mark's parents were [[Theosophist]]s, and as such may have refrained from eating meat. Marcus became a lifelong [[vegetarian]] while a boy, after witnessing the slaughter of pigs on a farm.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|p=8}} He was found to be completely deaf in one ear and he needed glasses for severe [[astigmatism]] and short-sightedness.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|p=16}}

Oliphant was first educated at primary schools in [[Goodwood, South Australia|Goodwood]] and [[Mylor, South Australia|Mylor]], after the family moved there in 1910.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|pp=14–15}} He attended [[Unley High School]] in Adelaide, and, for his final year in 1918, [[Adelaide High School]].{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|p=19}} After graduation he failed to obtain a [[bursary]] to attend university, so he took a job with S. Schlank & Co., an Adelaide manufacturing jeweller noted for medallions. He then secured a [[cadetship]] with the [[State Library of South Australia]], which allowed him to take courses at the [[University of Adelaide]] at night.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|pp=20–21}}

In 1919, Oliphant began studying at the University of Adelaide. At first he was interested in a career in medicine, but later in the year, [[Kerr Grant]], the physics professor, offered him a cadetship in the Physics Department. It paid 10 [[shilling (Australian)|shilling]]s a week ({{Inflation|AU|1|1919|fmt=eq|cursign=AUD$}}), the same amount that Oliphant received for working at the State Library, but it allowed him to take any university course that did not conflict with his work for the department.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|pp=22–23}} He received his [[Bachelor of Science]] (BSc) degree in 1921 and then did [[honours degree|honours]] in 1922, supervised by Grant.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|p=28}} Roy Burdon, who acted as head of the department when Grant went on sabbatical in 1925, worked with Oliphant to produce two papers in 1927 on the properties of [[Mercury (element)|mercury]], "The Problem of the Surface Tension of Mercury and the Action of Aqueous Solutions on a Mercury Surface"<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Problem of the Surface Tension of Mercury and the Action of Aqueous Solutions on a Mercury Surface |journal=[[Transactions of the Faraday Society]] |first1=R. S. |last1=Burdon |first2= M. L. |last2=Oliphant |year=1927 |volume=23 |pages=205–213|doi=10.1039/TF9272300205 }}</ref> and "Adsorption of Gases on the Surface of Mercury".<ref>{{cite journal |first2=R. S. |last2=Burdon |first1= M. L. |last1=Oliphant |title=Adsorption of Gases on the Surface of Mercury |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=120 |issue=3025 |pages=584–585 |date=22 October 1927|doi=10.1038/120584b0 |bibcode = 1927Natur.120..584O |s2cid=4069073 }}</ref> Oliphant later recalled that Burdon taught him "the extraordinary exhilaration there was in even minor discoveries in the field of physics".<ref name=curiosity>{{cite web | last =Sutherland | first =Denise | title ="Just Curiosity...", Sir Mark Oliphant | publisher =[[University of Melbourne]] | year =1997 | url =http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/as_oliphant.htm | access-date =28 January 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070203004516/http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/as_oliphant.htm | archive-date =3 February 2007 | url-status =live | df =dmy-all }}</ref>

Oliphant married Rosa Louise Wilbraham, who was from Adelaide, on 23 May 1925. The two had known each other since they were teenagers. He made Rosa's wedding ring in the laboratory from a gold nugget from the [[Coolgardie]] Goldfields that his father had given him.{{sfn|Cockburn|Ellyard|1981|p=29}}