Arthur Janser

(June 17, 1903 – 1964)

Dr Arthur Magnus John Janser was a UK fan from London active in the 1930s. He was a member of British Interplanetary Society (BIS) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRAS) and he attended the Second British Convention in 1938 although seemingly no others.

Janser was an expert chemist and submitted a number of patents which give clues to his pre-1940 life. Originally from Vienna, he passed through Berlin and Paris before ending up in London in 1936. He may have been a refugee.

In London he became involved with the British Interplanetary Society and he was for a time their librarian. Meetings of the BIS sometimes took place at his flat. He attended the 1938 convention in London where in the official report Bill Temple recalled:

I came out of a sort of pipe dream to find myself in the midst of an argument between Arthur Janser and Benson Herbert on methods of government. Mr. Janser is a monarchist. Benson Herbert wasn't, nor was I. (Again similarity with genius, please note.) We argued over the Austrian situation, at that time acute, and Herbert displayed quite a wide knowledge of international politics and history. Janser, being Viennese, gave us some inside dope on how the Nazis were confining his friend, Sigmund Freud, the great psychologist.

As an Austrian citizen he was interned in April 1940 but this ceased in October, possibly because he was doing war work. As well as suggestions for rocket propulsion he also proposed such science-fictional ideas as a 500-ton tank, a grasshopper tank that could leap over obstacles, a death ray and robot soldiers. These ideas may not have been entirely serious.

He doesn't seem to have been much involved with fandom after the 1930s. Sid Birchby bumped into Janser in 1942:

Talking of missing people, one of the long-lost came to light last week. Some of us were in a London bookshop talking about space travel & the shopkeeper said, turning to a customer who came in at that moment, 'Here's someone who can tell you all about it, he's vice-president of the British Interplanetary Society'.

'Yes,' said the stranger, 'my name is Janser!' He wishes to be remembered to all the old gang, especially Arthur Clarke, Bill, Maurice & Ted. Janser was B.I.S. librarian too.

Janser had applied for naturalisation as a British citizen in July/August 1939 but didn't get it until May 1947. He continued to work in London as a 'Research and Consulting Chemist'.

In his dairies quoted in Relapse #18 (Autumn 2010), Temple mentions 'old Janser' (he would have been about 54) as one of the people he met at Loncon I in 1957. However his name isn't on the membership list and he seemingly isn't mentioned in other reports.

An article about Janser at The Online Tank Museum provides much of the information for this entry.

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Person

1903—1964

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