Μνάσεσθαί τινά φαμι καὶ ὔστερον ἀμμέων.**
- Sappho
**I think men will remember us even hereafter.
The Eagle pub is an iconic pub in Cambridge. When the university's Cavendish Laboratory was still at its old site at nearby Free School Lane, the pub was a popular lunch destination for staff working there. Thus, it became the place where Francis Crick interrupted patrons' lunchtime on 28 February 1953 to announce that he and James Watson had "discovered the secret of life" after they had come up with their proposal for the structure of DNA. But its importance goes even further back.
The pub originally opened in 1667. A small back room is what is known as the RAF bar. During the dark days of World War Two, the local countryside contained, on average, an airfield every eight miles. The pub became a favourite haunt of off duty RAF and US 8th Air Force personnel eager to unwind from the stresses of the air war over Germany.
There is barely an inch of wall space that is not devoted to photographs of smiling, leather-jacketed airmen, bravely standing in front of aeroplanes that took them out to the fiery battlefront. There are empty cans of Shell aviation fuel, pairs of flying boots, scribbled names of pilots and the planes they flew.
I used to hang out with friends after supervisions for a drink there as a student and squint my eyes to try and read the inscriptions on the ceilings. It’s a fitting memorial for all those brave British and Allied flyers. It partly inspired me to make up my mind and join the Army Air Corps after I was done with academia.
