Bragg was elected president of the Royal Society in 1935. The physiologist A. V. Hill was biological secretary and soon A. C. G. Egerton became physical secretary. During World War I all three had stood by for frustrating months before their skills were employed for the war effort. Now the cause of science was strengthened by the report of a high-level Army committee on lessons learned in the last war; their first recommendation was to "keep abreast of modern scientific developments". Anticipating another war, the Ministry of Labour was persuaded to accept Hill as a consultant on scientific manpower. The Royal Society compiled a register of qualified men. They proposed a small committee on science to advise the Committee on Imperial Defence, but this was rejected. Finally in 1940, as Bragg's term ended, a scientific advisory committee to the War Cabinet was appointed. Brag was among the 2,300 names of prominent persons listed on the Nazis ' Special Search List, of those who were to be arrested on the invasion of Great Britain and turned over to the Gestapo. Bragg died in 1942.