Wittgenstein in love

Soon after becoming a lecturer, Wittgenstein fell in love with a young Trinity undergraduate, Francis Skinner, who became his constant companion and valued collaborator in philosophical work.

Skinner, the most promising mathematician of his year, was a rather shy, good-looking and very gentle young man who was clearly destined for an academic career.

Skinner: "Under Ludwig's influence, I gave up university and became a factory mechanic."

Skinner died in 1941, aged 29 years old.

But in 1946, Wittgenstein fell in love with Ben Richards, an undergraduate student of medicine at Cambridge who was nearly forty years younger than him; this relationship brought him great joy and continued until his death.