The period of Ramanujan’s stay in England almost overlapped with World War I . One of the lecturers went to war*, wrote Ramanujan to a friend [Krishna Rao] in India and Ramanujan felt that the other professors …lost their interest owing to the… war. One of the professors had remarked that Ramanujan was in England at the most unfortunate time. There were about 700 students before the war, but this number was reduced to 150, by November 1915.

* Ramanujan was perhaps referring to the departure of Mr. J.E. Littlewood