I am very conscious of the privilege and honour of being asked to deliver the first R. J. Mitchell Memorial Lecture. The presence of such a distinguished audience, and the fact that I feel the subject is one to which it is difficult to do full justice, are factors which do not tend to fill me with confidence, and I hope you will forgive any inadequacies. From a mass of recollections arising as the result of fourteen years of contact with Mitchell, I hope to give you my impressions of the life and career of that great designer.