Sir John Bland-Sutton was born in Enfield Highway, in 1855. He was educated at the local school, where he acted for two years as pupil teacher with the intention of becoming a schoolmaster. He was dtermined to become a doctor as soon as he had the money necessary to pay the fees. He attended the private school of anatomy kept by Thomas Cooke, FRCS, off Mecklenburgh Square. Here he learnt and taught anatomy, until he could afford the fees at the Middlesex Hospital. He entered there as a student in 1878, and was immediately appointed Prosector of Anatomy. He became junior demonstrator in 1879; senior demonstrator in 1883; and lecturer from 1886-1896. He was Murchison scholar at the Royal College of Physicians in 1884. He was elected assistant surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital in 1886, with the proviso that he should remain in London during the months of August and September, when the senior surgeons were accustomed to take their annual holiday. He became assistant surgeon to the Hospital for Women in 1886, and was promoted to surgeon six months later. He became surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital from 1905-1920, when he resigned and was made consulting surgeon. At the Royal College of Surgeons he won the Jacksonian prize in 1892; he gave the Erasmus Wilson lectures in 1885-1887 and 1889-1891; he was elected a member of the Pathological Society in 1882 and served on the Council of the Society from 1887-1890; he was an examiner in anatomy for the Fellowship in 1895; he was a Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology from 1888-1889, and gave a lecture as Hunterian Professor in 1916; he was Bradshaw Lecturer in 1917; and Hunterian Orator in 1923. Elected to the Council in 1910, he was Vice-President in 1918-1920, and was President for the years 1923-1925. In 1927 he was elected a trustee of the Hunterian collection. During World War One he was gazetted major, RAMC(T) in 1916, and was attached to the 3rd London General Hospital at Denmark Hill. The surroundings and discipline of a military hospital proved uncongenial, and in 1916 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, placed upon an appeal board, and directed to collect he specimens of gunshot wounds which formed a unique display in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, until they were destroyed by the bombing of 1941. Bland-Sutton became a prosector at the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park in 1881 whilst he was still a student at the Middlesex Hospital. He was made Vice-President of the Zoological Society of London in 1928. He lectured on comparative pathology at the Royal Veterinary College in Camden Town from 1891-1892. He was President of the Medical Society of London 1914; President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland 1929; President of the Royal Society of Medicine 1929; and President of the International Cancer Conference held in London in 1928. He was also a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem from 1924. He died in 1936.
Alexander Monro, secundus, was born in Edinburgh in 1733. He was the third son of Alexander Monro, primus, (1697-1767), Professor of Medicine and Anatomy at Edinburgh University. From an early age Alexander was designated as his father's successor as Professor of Medicine and his father took his education very seriously. Monro secundus' name first appears on his father's anatomy class list in 1744. The following year he matriculated in the Faculty of Arts at Edinburgh University. He began attending medical lectures in 1750. In 1753, still a student, he took over the teaching of his father's summer anatomy class and at his father's instigation was named joint Professor of Medicine and Anatomy in 1754. He graduated MD in 1755, and then went on an anatomical grand tour, studying in London with William Hunter, and in Berlin with Johann Friedrick Meckel. He matriculated on 17 Sep at Leiden University and became friends with Albinus. His tour was interrupted when his father's recurring illness brought him home to take up the duties of the professorship in 1758. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1759. In the 50 years he taught at Edinburgh University Monro secundus became the most influential anatomy professor in the English speaking world, lecturing daily from 1 to 3pm, in the 6-month winter session. He spent every morning preparing for his class anatomical specimens from his own extensive collection. When the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh attempted to institute a professorship of surgery Monro acted vigorously to protect his chair, protesting to the town council against such a step. He succeeded in 1777 in having the title of his own professorship formally changed to the Chair of Medicine, Anatomy and Surgery, preventing the establishment of a course of surgery in Edinburgh for thirty years. The anatomical research which secured Monro's posthumous medical reputation was his description of the communication between the lateral ventricles of the brain, now known as the foramen of Monro. He first noted it in a paper read before the Philosophical Scoiety of Edinburgh in 1764. Monro was a member of the Harveian Society (a medical supper club), secretary to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, a manager of the Royal Infirmary, and district commissioner for the city of Edinburgh. He married Katherine Inglis on 25 September 1762, and they had two daughters and three sons. The eldest son Alexander Monro tertius (1773-1859), succeeded his father as Professor of Medicine, Anatomy and Surgery. Monro secundus died in 1817.
Thomas Moore wrote these notes during lectures by Alexander Monro, presumably secundus, (1733-1817). A Thomas Moore graduated MD at Edinburgh in 1815. No other biographical information was available at the time of compilation.
Alexander Monro, secundus, was born in Edinburgh in 1733. He was the third son of Alexander Monro, primus, (1697-1767), Professor of Medicine and Anatomy at Edinburgh University. From an early age Alexander was designated as his father's successor as Professor of Medicine and his father took his education very seriously. Monro secundus' name first appears on his father's anatomy class list in 1744. The following year he matriculated in the faculty of arts at Edinburgh University. He began attending medical lectures in 1750. In 1753, still a student, he took over the teaching of his father's summer anatomy class and at his father's instigation was named joint professor of medicine and anatomy in 1754. He graduated MD in 1755, and then went on an anatomical grand tour, studying in London with William Hunter, and in Berlin with Johann Friedrick Meckel. He matriculated on 17 Sep at Leiden University and became friends with Albinus. His tour was interrupted when his father's recurring illness brought him home to take up the duties of the professorship in 1758. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1759. In the 50 years he taught at Edinburgh University Monro secundus became the most influential anatomy professor in the English speaking world, lecturing daily from 1 to 3pm, in the 6-month winter session. He spent every morning preparing for his class anatomical specimens from his own extensive collection. When the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh attempted to institute a professorship of surgery Monro acted vigorously to protect his chair, protesting to the town council against such a step. He succeeded in 1777 in having the title of his own professorship formally changed to the chair of medicine, anatomy and surgery, preventing the establishment of a course of surgery in Edinburgh for thirty years. The anatomical research which secured Monro's posthumous medical reputation was his description of the communication between the lateral ventricles of the brain, now known as the foramen of Monro. He first noted it in a paper read before the Philosophical Scoiety of Edinburgh in 1764. Monro was a member of the Harveian Society (a medical supper club), secretary to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, a manager of the Royal Infirmary, and district commissioner for the city of Edinburgh. He married Katherine Inglis on 25 September 1762, and they had two daughters and three sons. The eldest son Alexander Monro tertius (1773-1859), succeeded his father as Professor of Medicine, Anatomy and Surgery. Monro secundus died in 1817.
No biographical information relating to James Curry or Mr Thorburn was available at the time of compilation.
Alexander Monro, secundus, was born in Edinburgh in 1733. He was the third son of Alexander Monro, primus, (1697-1767), Professor of Medicine and Anatomy at Edinburgh University. From an early age Alexander was designated as his father's successor as Professor of Medicine and his father took his education very seriously. Monro secundus' name first appears on his father's anatomy class list in 1744. The following year he matriculated in the faculty of arts at Edinburgh University. He began attending medical lectures in 1750. In 1753, still a student, he took over the teaching of his father's summer anatomy class and at his father's instigation was named joint professor of medicine and anatomy in 1754. He graduated MD in 1755, and then went on an anatomical grand tour, studying in London with William Hunter, and in Berlin with Johann Friedrick Meckel. He matriculated on 17 Sep at Leiden University and became friends with Albinus. His tour was interrupted when his father's recurring illness brought him home to take up the duties of the professorship in 1758. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1759. In the 50 years he taught at Edinburgh University Monro secundus became the most influential anatomy professor in the English speaking world, lecturing daily from 1 to 3pm, in the 6-month winter session. He spent every morning preparing for his class anatomical specimens from his own extensive collection. When the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh attempted to institute a professorship of surgery Monro acted vigorously to protect his chair, protesting to the town council against such a step. He succeeded in 1777 in having the title of his own professorship formally changed to the chair of medicine, anatomy and surgery, preventing the establishment of a course of surgery in Edinburgh for thirty years. The anatomical research which secured Monro's posthumous medical reputation was his description of the communication between the lateral ventricles of the brain, now known as the foramen of Monro. He first noted it in a paper read before the Philosophical Scoiety of Edinburgh in 1764. Monro was a member of the Harveian Society (a medical supper club), secretary to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, a manager of the Royal Infirmary, and district commissioner for the city of Edinburgh. He married Katherine Inglis on 25 September 1762, and they had two daughters and three sons. The eldest son Alexander Monro tertius (1773-1859), succeeded his father as Professor of Medicine, Anatomy and Surgery. Monro secundus died in 1817.
Allen Thomson was born in 1809. He was the grandson of John Thomson (1765-1846), Professor of Military Surgery, and of General Pathology at the University of Edinburgh. He was also the first Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Allen Thomson was educated in Edinburgh, graduating MD in 1830. He then travelled to Europe, visiting Amsterdam, Strasbourg and Berlin, where he studied anatomical and pathological museums before returning to Edinburgh in 1831, as Lecturer in Anatomy and Physiology. He set up a teaching partnership with William Sharpey, where he taught the physiology, and Sharpey taught anatomy. The partnership lasted until 1836 when Sharpey was appointed Professor of Anatomy at University College London. Thomson became a Fellow of the Edinburgh College in 1832. He travelled to London and Europe for further anatomical study in 1833. He became Private Physician to the Duke of Bedford and his family in 1837, before being appointed to the Chair of Anatomy in Aberdeen in 1839. He returned to Edinburgh to become a teacher of anatomy in the extramural school in 1841, and then became Professor of Institutes of Medicine (Physiology) at the University of Edinburgh. One of the innovations that he introduced on his return to Edinburgh was to use the microscope in the teaching of anatomy. He became Chair of Anatomy at the University of Glasgow in 1848, until his retirement in 1877. By the time of appointment to Glasgow he had amassed a large collection of material for anatomical and physiological teaching which was added to the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1838, and of London in 1848, later becoming President of that Scoiety. He became President of the British Association in 1876, and was honoured with the degrees of LLD from the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He died in 1884.
Benjamin Thompson was born the son of Benjamin Thompson and Ruth Simonds, in Woburn, Massachusetts, North America, in 1753. He had little formal schooling and educated himself by reading books. Later, he attended lectures at Harvard University and became a school teacher. He moved to Concord, New Hampshire and in 1772, he married Sarah Walker Rolfe, a wealthy widow; they had one daughter. In 1775, they separated permanently. Thompson then became an active member of the Tory party and fled to London, England at the fall of Boston. He was given employment at the Colonial Office and occupied himself with various experiments such as the optimal position of firing vents in canons and the velocity of shot. In 1779 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1780 he was made under-secretary for the colonies and later returned to America as Lieutenant-Colonel in the American Dragoons of George III. In 1784 he was knighted. From 1784-1795, he joined the service of the court of the elector of Bavaria and became head of the Bavarian Army. In 1793, he was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire and took the name of Count (von) Rumford. He continued his scientific work and showed that heat was lost through convection and as a result he made military cloth to be more insulating. He made soup a staple and nutritional diet for the poor. He also designed a drip-type coffee maker, the double boiler and pots and pans to be used on his `insulated box' more commonly known as a stove. He later designed more efficient fire places whereby the size of the throat was enlarged according to the size of the fire place in order to reduce the amount of smoke emissions. He studied light and made standard candles, and later used steam for efficient production in the manufacture of soap and dye and also in breweries. In 1796, he gave a large amount of money to the Royal Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston, America, for scientific research prizes into heat and light. In 1799, he helped found the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) with the idea of making it into a museum for technology to educate the poor. He established lectures and gained money from the aristocracy in order to fund the RI, introducing Humphry Davy (later Sir) and Thomas Young as early professors. However, he lost interest in the running of the RI and went to Paris, France, where he married Marie-Anne, widow of Antoine Lavoisier. The marriage failed and he retired to Auteuil, France, where he later died in 1814. Many of his papers were reprinted, for example under S. C. Brown, The Nature of Heat, 1968; Practical Applications of Heat, 1969; Devices and Techniques, 1969; Light and Armament, 1970; Public Institutions, 1970.
Cecil Henry Desch was born the son of Henry Thomas Desch in 1874. He attended the Birkbeck School in Kingsland as a child, and later went to the Finsbury Technical College. He studied at Würzburg University and also at the University College London. In 1902-1907, he worked at the Metallurgical Department of Kings College, London. In 1909 he married Elison Ann Macadam and they had two children. He was a lecturer in Metallurgical Chemistry at the University of Glasgow from 1909 to 1918. He then became Professor of Metallurgy at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow from 1918 to 1920. He was Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Sheffield from 1920 to 1931 and Superintendent of the Metallurgy Department at the National Physical Laboratory from 1932 to 1939. He was President of the Faraday Society from 1926 to 1928. From 1931 to 1932, he was the George Fisher Baker Lecturer at Cornell University. In 1936 to 1938, 1942 to 1944, 1946 to 1948 and 1949 to 1950, he was a Manager at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI). He was also Vice-President at the RI in 1937 to 1938, 1942 to 1944, 1946 to 1948 and 1949 to 1950. He was President of the Institute of Metals from 1938 to 1940 and President of the Iron and Steel Institute from 1946 to 1948. He died in 1958.
Eric Rideal was born the son of Samuel Rideal, a public analyst and consulting chemist, and Elizabeth at Sydenham, Kent. He was educated at Farnham Grammar School and Oundle School as a child. In 1907 he entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge to read natural sciences. In 1910 he gained first class honours in part one of the Tripos, and subsequently gained first class honours in part two of the Tripos in 1911. A lecturer at Cambridge, Sir William Bate Hardy, steered Eric Rideal into studying surface chemistry. This resulted in him researching at Aachen and Bonn, Germany. He studied electrochemistry and graduated in 1912 and in 1913 he gained the gold medal of the Bonn Society of Engineers for his research. He returned to Westminster, England and in 1914, he worked with war supplies. He was under the Artists' Rifles and moved on to the Royal Engineers as Captain. He was invalided in 1916 and returned to scientific research namely nitrogen research at the University College London laboratory. In 1919 he co-wrote Catalysis in Theory and Practice with H. S. Taylor. He was a visiting professor of the University of Illinois in 1919 and in 1921, he married Margaret Atlee, widow of William Agnew Paton. In 1930 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. He also became Professor of Colloid Physics (later Colloid Science) at Cambridge University in 1930, a position he held until 1946. During this period he worked on electrochemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, colloid and surface chemistry and kinetics spectroscopy. From 1939-1945 he worked on explosives, fuels and polymers for the war effort of the Second World War. In 1946 he became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory at The Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI). He left the RI in 1949 and became Professor of Chemistry at King's College London in 1950, retiring in 1955. In 1951 he was knighted and also gained the Davy medal of the Royal Society. From 1953 to 1958, he was Chairman of the Advisory Council on Scientific Research and the Technical Development of the Ministry of Supply. He was elected a Fellow of King's College London in 1963. He died in a nursing home in London in 1974.
George Porter was born in Stainforth, Yorkshire, in 1920. He was educated at Thorne Grammar School 1931-1938, and was Ackroyd Scholar at the University of Leeds, 1938-1941. He served as a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Radar Officer in the Western Approaches and the Mediterranean from 1941 to 1945. In 1949 he married Stella Jean Brooke and they had two sons, John Brooke and Andrew Christopher George. In 1945 he went to the University of Cambridge to research chemical kinetics and photochemistry. He stayed at Cambridge until 1954 when he became Assistant Director of the British Rayon Research Association in Manchester. He studied the problems of dye fading and phototendering of fabrics. He was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield from 1955 to 1963 and became Firth Professor of Chemistry there from 1963 to 1966. He was also Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) from 1963 to 1966. In 1966 he became Director of the RI as well as Fullerian Professor of Chemistry of the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory at the RI. He researched into applying flash photolysis to the problem of photosynthesis and extended it to the nanosecond and picoseocnd regions. He remained Director of the RI until 1985 and during this time, he gave many lectures including several broadcasts on television. He published many papers and also books such as Chemistry for the Modern World, 1962 and Chemistry in Microtime, 1996. He received many awards for his work, gaining the Davy medal in 1971, the Rumford medal in 1978, the Michael Faraday medal in 1991 and the Copley medal in 1992. In 1967 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with M. Eigen and R. G. W. Norrish. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1960 and became President of the Royal Society in 1985 until 1990. He became Chairman of the Centre for Photomolecular Sciences, at Imperial College London in 1990. He was knighted in 1972, awarded the Order of Merit in 1989 and made a life peer in 1990.
Henry Bence Jones was born the son of Lieutenant-Colonel William Jones and Matilda Bence in 1814. He attended Harrow School and then Trinity College Cambridge gaining a BA in 1836 and a MD in 1849. He undertook medical studies at St George's Hospital and became a physician there from 1846 to 1872. He studied chemistry under Thomas Graham at the University College, London, and in 1841 he went to Giessen, Germany to study under Justus Liebig. In 1842 he became licentiate to the Royal College of Physicians and was a Fellow in 1849. He married Lady Millicent Acheson. In 1846 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. He studied the aspects of chemistry in pathology and medicine, and gave a course of lectures in Animal Chemistry in its application to Stomach and Renal Diseases'. He became Secretary of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) in 1860, a position he held until 1873. In 1868 he gave theCroonian lectures on matter and force'. He was a friend and biographer of Michael Faraday (1791-1867). He published a book on Animal Electricity in 1852. He died in 1873.
Henry Hallett Dale was born the son of Charles James Dale, businessman, and Frances Ann Hallett, in London in 1875. He was educated at Tollington Park College in London and then subsequently at Leys School in Cambridge. He later gained a First in the Natural Sciences Tripos at Trinity College Cambridge, in 1898. In 1900 he began clinical training at St Bartholemew's Hospital, gaining his MD in 1909. In 1904 he married Ellen Harriet Hallett and they had three children. He studied at the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratory in 1904, looking at chemical phase transmissions of nerve fibre endings to responsive cells, as well as the reaction of histamine in animals. In 1914 he became a member of the Medical Research Committee (named Council after 1920), and from 1928 to 1942, he was Director of the Council and that of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the National Institute for Medical Research. His researches investigated into adrenaline reversal, which became the basis for using phentolamine in the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma. His work on histamine, which he carried out with P P Laidlaw (later Sir) in 1911, highlighted the effects of poisoning and anaphylactic shock. He became a spokesman for the men of science and helped standardize drugs and anti-toxins; he also developed the terms cholinergic and adrenergic. In 1914 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (RS) and was a Secretary of the RS from 1925 to 1935. In 1942 he became Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) and in the same year he was Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the War Cabinet; he held these positions until 1946 and 1947 respectively. In 1947 he was President of the British Association, and from 1948 to 1950, he was President of the Royal Society of Medicine. From 1950 to 1955 he was President of the British Council. He gained many medals for his work such as the RS Copley medal in 1937, and in 1936 he won the Nobel Prize with Otto Loewi for their work on the chemical transmission of nerve endings. In 1932 he was knighted, and in 1943 he was made a Knight of the Grand Cross of the British Empire. The Society for Endocrinology set up an annual Dale medal from 1959 and the RS set up the Dale professorship from 1961. He published many papers in journals such as the Journal of Physiology, and he also published works such as Adventures in Physiology with Excursions into Auto Pharmacology (Pergamon Press, London, 1953) and An Autumn Gleaning (Pergamon Press, London, 1954). He died in 1968.
Humphry Davy was born the son of Robert Davy, a wood carver, and Grace Millet in Penzance, Cornwall. He taught himself a great deal through reading, but also attended local grammar schools in Penzance and Truro. In 1795 he was apprenticed to John Bingham Borlase, surgeon of Penzance, where he was introduced to the rudiments of science by Robert Dunkin, a saddler. In 1798 he joined the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol as an assistant to Thomas Beddoes. There he began researches into heat and light which he later published. In 1799 he published the first volume of West Country Collections and Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly Nitrous Oxide and its Respiration. He experimented with nitrous oxide and suggested that it could be used for surgery due to its anaesthetic properties, however this was ignored and not used until much later in the century. In 1801 he gave his first lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) and became Director of the Chemistry Laboratory. In 1802 he became Professor of Chemistry at the RI which he held until 1812. In 1803 he gave his first lecture to the Royal Society, of which he was elected a Fellow and received its Copley medal in 1805. In 1804 he entered Jesus College Cambridge perhaps to finish his medical studies, but he never attended. As Assistant Lecturer at the RI, he undertook research for the Managers, and he also became Chemistry Professor to the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement (a non-government organisation). In particular he researched into the problems of using oak bark for the tanning of leather and discovered that catechu from mimosa of India was much better. In 1805-1806, he toured Ireland and Cornwall with Thomas Bernard to research into mineralogy. After this he was released from investigations for the RI and in 1807 he won the Napoleonic Prize from the Institute of France for his discoveries of the constitution of oxymuratic acid and for demonstrating the existence of potassium, sodium and chlorine by agency of a galvanic battery, thus developing the theory of electrochemical action. In 1812 he was knighted by the Prince Regent and also married a wealthy widow, Mrs Jane Apreece. He then retired from the RI and was made Honorary Professor. In 1813 he visited laboratories in France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany with his wife and Michael Faraday (1791-1867) as his assistant, secretary and reluctant valet. He experimented with pigments and combustion of diamonds as well as iodine which he discovered at the same time as the French chemist, Joseph Louis Gay-Lusaac (who called it iode). On his return to London in 1815, Humphry was asked to look into the problem of explosions in mines. He discovered that gas and the flames used to give light to miners caused the explosions, so he designed the miners safety lamp. He toured the continent again in the late 1810s. In 1820 he became President of the Royal Society which he held until 1827. During the 1820s, he discovered that by applying zinc or iron to the copper bottoms of ships, corrosion could be prevented. However, it was deemed a failure as plant life in the sea would adhere to the ships thus causing dragging. In 1826 he travelled to Europe again where he continued to work until his death in 1829. He was buried in the cemetery of Plain-Palais, Geneva and there is a tablet in his memory at Westminster Abbey.
James Dewar was born the son of Thomas Dewar, vintner and innkeeper, and Ann Eadie in Kincardine-on-Forth, Scotland. As a child he attended local schools such as the Dollar Academy and he also learnt the art of violin making. In 1858 he attended Edinburgh University under James David Forbes, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Lyon Playfair, Professor of Chemistry. He became an assistant to Lyon Playfair from 1867 to 1868, subsequently becoming assistant to Alexander Crum Brown from 1868 to 1873. In 1867 he invented a mechanical device to represent Alexander Crum Brown's graphic notation for organic compounds. He worked on heat, chemical reactions, atomic and molecular weight determinations and spectroscopy. In 1869 he became a lecturer at the Royal Veterinary College of Edinburgh. In 1871 he married Helen Rose Banks. In 1873 he became assistant chemist to the Highland and Agricultural Society. He was elected Jacksonian Professor of Natural Experimental Philosophy, Cambridge, in 1873, and became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at The Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) in 1877. At the RI, Dewar worked on cryogenics and from 1877 to 1904, he wrote 78 papers on the subject of spectroscopy with George Downing Liveing. During the course of his work on cryogenics he invented the silver vacuum vessels known as the Dewar or Thermos flask. In 1878 he achieved the liquefaction of oxygen. From 1892 to 1895, he worked with A. Fleming, Professor of Electrical Engineering at University College London. He worked on conduction, thermo electricity, magnetic permeability and dielectric constants of metal and alloys. In 1896 he became Director of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory at the RI. He worked on the liquefaction of gases and in 1898 he liquefied hydrogen. He was a member of the Explosives Committee from 1888 to 1889, inventing cordite with Sir Frederick Abel. From 1904 to 1914, he worked on low temperature calorimentry investigations; he later studied bubbles and thin films and infrared radiation from the sky by day and night. In 1904 he was knighted. He gained several awards for his work such as the Davy medal, the Copley medal and the Rumford medals of the Royal Society; the Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts; and the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for 1900-1904 of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He died, in office, in 1923.
John Barlow was born the son of a parson in 1799. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge and took holy orders soon after. In 1822 he became curate of the Parish of Uckfield, Sussex; from 1830 to 1842 he was rector of Little Bowden, Northamptonshire. In 1824 he married Cecilia Anne Lam (c 1796-1868). He became a member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) in 1832 and a manager in 1838. In 1834 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. From 1837 to 1838 he was Secretary of the Zoological Society. In 1841 he succeeded Michael Faraday (1791-1867) as Secretary of the Lectures Committee at the RI. In 1843 he was elected Honorary Secretary of the RI, a position he held until 1860. In this role he made many far reaching administrative changes in the running of the RI. He gave lectures at the RI on the practical application of science. He published some of his research in The Discovery of the Vital Principle or Physiology of Man in 1838; he also published On Man's Power Over Himself to Prevent or Control Insanity, which highlighted the importance of moral management of the insane rather than the use of intimidation. In 1851 he became Minister of the Duke Street Chapel, London and from 1854 to 1859, he was Chaplain-in-Ordinary at Kensington Palace. He died in 1869.
John Davy was born the son of Robert Davy, a woodcarver and Grace Millet in Penzance, Cornwall. He attended preparatory schools in Penzance as a child and later assisted his brother, Humphry Davy, in the laboratory of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) in 1808. In 1810 John studied medicine at Edinburgh University gaining his degree in 1814. He experimented on the muriatic theories of his brother in order to help prove them. He entered the British Army Medical Department as a surgeon. He became the Inspector General of Hospitals and it was in this capacity that he travelled over much of the British Empire during his foreign service thus producing several notebooks on his observations of various countries. In 1821 he published An Account of the Interior of Ceylon. In 1830 he married Margaret Fletcher. In 1836 he wrote the Memoirs of the Life of Sir Humphry Davy and he edited the collected works of his brother, producing nine volumes in 1839-1840. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1834 and published over 100 papers on observations such as the structure of the heart and circulatory system of amphibians; these are listed in the Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers. He lived in the West Indies for a time and returned to the Lake District in the United Kingdom for the remainder of his life. In 1862-1863 he published his Diseases of the Army. Upon his death in 1868, he bequeathed a piece of plate to the Royal Society which had been presented to Sir Humphry Davy by the mine owners for the invention of the safety lamp. His brother had wanted the plate to provide a medal for scientific research.
John Tyndall was born the son of John Tyndall, a shoemaker, in Leighton Bridge, County Carlow, Ireland, in 1820. He attended the National School in Carlow until the age of 19. He supplemented his schooling by reading and thus became fascinated by science. He began work as a draftsman and civil engineer in the Irish Ordnance Survey, but was later transferred to the English division in Preston, Lancashire in 1842. He was strongly against political principles in England and was transferred back to Ireland after protesting against them. He later returned to England as a surveyor and engineer during the railway development of 1844-1845. He became acquainted with George Edmondson of Queenwood College in Hampshire in 1847, and began teaching mathematics and drawing there. At Queenwood College, Tyndall was introduced to German science through his involvement with Thomas Archer Hirst and Edward Frankland. In 1848, he attended the University of Marburg in Germany, and studied science under Bunsen, gaining his PhD in 1850. He remained at Marburg and worked in the laboratory on diamagnetism with Karl Herrmann Knoblauch. Together, they published a paper on their work in Philosophical Magazine, in 1850-1851. Like many natural philosophers, Tyndall had to write, lecture and examine in order to earn a living and gain a name as a first-rate natural philosopher. Nevertheless, in 1852 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1853 he became Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI). Under Michael Faraday's guidance, he became a very good lecturer giving over 300 lectures at the RI alone. He succeeded Faraday as Superintendent of the RI in 1867, which he held until 1887. He became Scientific Adviser to Trinity House in 1865 and to the Board of Trade in c1867. Tyndall undertook various forms of research in his time, from electromagnetism to thermodynamics to bacteriology. From 1851 to 1856, he studied the compression on crystalline substances; 1854-1856 he looked at Penrhyn slate and investigated the Penrhyn quarries; 1856-1859, he studied glacial movements; 1860-1870 he undertook work on the effects of solar and heat radiation on atmospheric gases; 1870-1876 he considered the scattering of light particles and the blue colour of the sky, as well as spontaneous generation and defending Pasteur in his work. John Tyndall is known for verifying the high absorptive and radiative power of aqueous vapour; measuring atmosphere and the transmission of heat by gases and liquids; explaining the selective influence of the atmosphere on sounds, and establishing the principle of discontinuous heating', otherwise known asTyndallisation', as a sterilizing technique. His work on glacial movement was inconclusive. Tyndall was kept busy outside of the laboratory through other activities such as being the Examiner for the Royal Military College 1855-1857; Professor of Physics at the Royal School of Mines 1859-1968; lecturer at Eton College 1856 and at the London Institution 1856-1859. He regularly wrote articles for the Saturday Review from 1859, and became Scientific Adviser to The Reader 1863-1867. In 1869 he inaugurated the journal Nature and pushed for public knowledge and access to science. In 1866-1867, he was on the British Association Committee for teaching science. He published many papers through the Royal Society, as well as books such as Glaciers of the Alps in 1860 and Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion in 1863. He received the Rumford Medal from the Royal Society, in1869. In 1874, he gave a presidential address to the British Association in Belfast which caused a great deal of controversy since he questioned theistic explanations for natural phenomena. In 1876, he married Louisa Charlotte Hamilton. During the 1870s and 1880s, Tyndall was often ill. He resigned from his position as Scientific Advisor to Trinity House and the Board of Trade in 1884, over Joseph Chamberlain's policy for lighthouses. He rejected Gladstone's policies for home rule in Ireland in 1885, and by 1886 he became so ill that he was eventually bedridden. He retired from the RI in 1887, and after an accidental overdose of medication by his wife, Louisa, he died in 1893.
Faraday was born the son of a blacksmith in Newington Butts, Southwark. It is not known where he was educated as a child, but the family moved north near Manchester Square. At 13, he worked as a newspaper boy for George Riebau of Blandford Street. He then became an apprentice for seven years in bookbinding under Riebau. In 1810 and 1811, he attended lectures on science given by silversmith John Tatum (1772-1858) in the city of London and took notes. These were shown to the son of a Member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) who in turn showed them to the Member who was so impressed he gave Faraday tickets to see Humphry Davy (1778-1829) lecture at the RI in 1812. After writing to Davy to ask for a job, he was appointed as a chemical assistant at the laboratory at the RI in 1813. In 1813 he travelled with Davy to France as an assistant, secretary and valet; subsequently visiting laboratories in Italy, Switzerland and Germany until April 1815. In 1816 he began his `Commonplace Book' and was elected Member of the City Philosophical Society from 1816 to 1819 giving lectures on chemical subjects. From 1816 to 1828, he published his work results in journals such as Quarterly Journal of Science, Philosophical Magazine and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. In 1821 he was appointed Superintendent of the RI to maintain the building. In 1825 he was appointed Director of the Laboratory and in 1833 he became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the RI. In 1821 he discovered electro-magnetic rotations, the principle of the electric motor. In 1831 he discovered electro-magnetic induction; also in the early 1830s, he discovered the laws of electrolysis and coined words such as electrode, cathode, anode and ion. In 1845 he discovered the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism developing the theory of the electromagnetic field. In 1824 he was elected to the Royal Society. He gave lectures at the RI between 1825 and 1862, establishing the Friday Evening Discourses and the Christmas Lectures for the young. In 1827 he delivered a course of lectures on chemical manipulation to the London Institution and he also gave lectures for medical students from St George's Hospital from the mid 1820s onwards. In 1829 he was appointed Scientific Adviser to the Admiralty. In 1830 he was Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich until 1851. In 1836 he was appointed Scientific Adviser to the Corporation of Trinity House, the English and Welsh lighthouse authority, until 1865. During the 1850s and 1860s, he introduced electricity to lighthouses under this position. In 1844 he conducted an enquiry with the geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875), into the Haswell Colliery, County Durham, explosion.
Faraday was a religious man of Sandemanian belief; he married Sarah Barnard, also of Sandemanian faith, in 1821. He was Deacon in the church between 1830 and 1840, an Elder between 1840 and 1844 and again between 1860 and 1864. He was given the Grace and Favour House at Hampton Court by Queen Victoria in 1858 where he retired to in 1861 and later died in 1867; he was buried in Highgate Cemetery.
William Robert Grove was born the son of John Grove, a magistrate, and Anne Bevan, in Swansea, Wales, in 1811. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and graduated in 1832. In 1835, he became a barrister at Lincoln's Inn and also became a member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) in the same year. In 1837 he married Emma Powles and they subsequently had six children. Despite his occupation in law, he was interested in science and researched into electrochemistry. He developed the Grove gas voltaic battery' in 1839, and also developed theGrove cell' using platinum for increased voltage. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1840, and gained their Royal medal in 1847. In 1841 he became Professor of Experimental Philosophy at the London Institution, in Finsbury Square, London, where he also gave lectures. In 1846 he published On the Correlation of Physical Forces, which established the theory of the mutual convertibility of forces. He was a member of the Chemical Society; a Member of the Council of the Royal Society from 1846 to 1847 and became Secretary of the Royal Society from 1848 to 1849. He retired from being a barrister in 1853 due to ill health, but he also became part of Queen's Counsel in the same year. He then became a member of the Royal Commission on the Law of Patents in 1864, and a Judge in the Court of Common Pleas in 1871. In 1871 he was knighted. He became a Judge of the Queen's Bench in 1880 and Privy Councillor in 1887. He died in London in 1896.
Thomas Webster was born in the Orkney Islands, Scotland in c 1772. He was educated in Aberdeen, Scotland before travelling to England and France, making architectural sketches on his journey. He became an architect in London and in 1799 he was Clerk of the Works at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI), employed to design the lecture theatre. He was also a geologist and in 1814 he wrote a paper called `On the Freshwater Formations of the Isle of Wight, with some Observations on the Strata Over the Chalk in the South East Part of England' in Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 2 (1814) 161-254. This study highlighted aspects of British geology not known before indicating upper secondary and tertiary strata, and was very important at the time. Thomas Webster became Curator of the Geological Society's museum and was Professor of Geology at University College London from 1842 to 1844. He died in London in 1844.
William Crookes was born the son of Joseph Crookes, tailor, and Mary Scott in London, in 1832. His education was irregular but eventually he attended A W Hofmann's Royal College of Chemistry in London in 1848. In 1850 he became Hofmann's assistant until 1854. He attended lectures at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) given by Michael Faraday (1791-1867). In 1854 he was Superintendent of the Meteorological Department of the Radcliffe Astronomical Observatory in Oxford. In 1854 he worked with John Spiller on the collodion process of photography and improved it. In 1855 he taught chemistry at the College of Science in Chester. In 1856, he researched into photography and compiled a Handbook to the Waxed-Paper Process in Photography (Chapman and Hall, 1857). He also undertook the editorship of the Liverpool Photographic Journal in 1856, and in 1857 he became Secretary of the London Photographic Society, a position he held until 1858. He was also the editor and proprietor of the weekly Chemical News journal from 1859. In 1856 he married Ellen Humphrey and they subsequently had ten children. Crookes researched into spectra and in 1861 he discovered a new element which he called thallium. In 1863 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (RS). In 1865 he discovered the process of extracting precious metals from ores, however it had already been discovered in America and Crookes had to negotiate half rights over patents for using sodium amalgam, only to be superseded by the discovery of potassium cyanide as the best solvent of gold. From 1867 he became interested in spiritualism, which affected his views on science. By 1870 he decided to investigate spiritualism as a scientist and prove the existence of psychic force, an investigation which caused him to lose some respect as a scientist. Despite this, he developed the technique of determining the atomic weight of thallium. In 1873 he wrote the paper `Attraction and Repulsion resulting from Radiation' published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society; this resulted in his invention of the radiometer in 1875. In 1876 he researched into radiant matter and found that molecular pressure was the result of radiant matter being affected by magnets. In the 1880s he worked on incandescent lamps for electricity. He became Director of the Electric Light and Power Company in 1881 and patented his designs on incandescent lamps, however he sold these as newer and better designs developed. In c1891 he became Director and later Chairman of the Notting Hill Electric Light Company which prospered in its time. In 1890 he was elected President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. In 1897 he was elected President of the Society for Psychical Research and in the same year he was knighted. He gave lectures on making diamonds at the RI in 1897 and became its Honorary Secretary in 1900 a position he held until 1912. In 1908 he was elected Foreign Secretary of the RS until 1913 when he was elected President of the RS, a position he held until 1915. He published papers in journals such as Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, as well as Proceedings of the Royal Society and in Chemical News. He died in 1919.
William Hasledine Pepys was born the son of W H Pepys, cutler and maker of surgical instruments, in London, in 1775. His educational background is not known. In 1796 he founded the Askesian Society, which led to the foundation of the British Mineralogical Society, the Geological Society and the London Institution, in Finsbury Square, London. He was an original manager of the London Institution and was Honorary Secretary from 1821 to 1824. He became the Treasurer and Vice-President of the Geological Society. He worked on soda-water apparatus in 1798 and also researched into using mercury contacts for electrical apparatus and tubes coated in India rubber to convey gases, inventing the mercury gasometer as a result. In 1807 he invented a type of eudiometer, and in 1808 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. He extended his father's business into making instruments for the philosophical discipline. He was active in the management of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) and was its Vice-President in 1816. He published papers of his work in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and in Philosophical Magazine with William Allen (1770-1843). He was a Quaker and he died in Kensington, London in 1856.
William Henry Bragg was born in Westward, Cumberland, the son of Robert John Bragg, a farmer, and Mary Wood in 1862. He was educated at Market Harborough and attended King William's College on the Isle of Man. In 1881 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge to study Mathematics. In 1884 he was third wrangler in part one of the Tripos and gained a first in part 3 of the Mathematical Tripos in 1885. In 1886 he became Elder Professor of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Adelaide and moved to Australia. In 1889 he married Gwendoline Todd and they had three children, William Lawrence, Robert Charles and Gwendoline Mary. He did not undertake much research until after addressing some scientific people in the country about current and past research in 1904. With the assistance of R. D. Kleeman, he decided to research into the radiations of electrons, x-rays, radioactivity and the extent to which they were absorbed and scattered by gases and solids. He discovered that alpha-particles of radium were ceased in ionisation. In 1903 he became President of Section A of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1907 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1909 he returned to England as Cavendish Professor of the University of Leeds which he held until 1915. In 1912 Max Von Laue showed that x-rays are diffracted by the atoms of a crystal. Using ionisation on such work and working with his son, William Lawrence Bragg (known as Lawrence in order to distinguish him from his father), they developed the science of x-ray crystallography. In 1913 he used ionisation to reflect x-rays and together with his son Lawrence, published "X-Rays and Crystal Structure" in 1915. He won the Nobel Prize for physics with Lawrence in 1915. He also gained several medals for his work on x-rays and crystallography, such as the Rumford medal in 1916 and the Copley medal in 1930 from the Royal Society, and the Faraday medal in 1936 from the Institution of Electrical Engineers. From 1915 to 1923, he was the Quain Professor of Physics at the University of London. During the First World War, he worked on underwater acoustics for the Admiralty in order to detect submarines. He was knighted in 1920. He became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) in 1923. He was known as a good lecturer and had many of his lectures published for example: The World of Sound in 1920 and Concerning the Nature of Things in 1925, which were taken from his Christmas Lectures given at the RI. He published papers such as `On the Absorption of X-rays and the Classification of the X-rays in Radium' in Philosophical Magazine in 1904, and others in Nature, Proceedings of the Royal Society and Transactions Royal Society South Australia; and books such as Crystallography and X-Rays and Crystal Structure. In 1932 he became President of the Physical Society. In 1935 he became President of the Royal Society. He died at the RI, London, in 1942.
William Lawrence Bragg was born the son of William Henry Bragg, physicist and Gwendoline Todd, in Adelaide, Australia, in 1890. As a child, he attended Queen's preparatory school and St Peter's College in Adelaide. He went to the University of Adelaide at the age of 15 in order to study mathematics and graduated in 1908 in physics and chemistry. In 1909 he came to England with his family and went to study at Cambridge. In 1910 he gained first class honours in part one of the mathematical Tripos and subsequently gained a first in part two of the physics Tripos in 1912. In 1914 he became a Fellow and lecturer in Natural Sciences at Trinity College Cambridge. He began researching under J. J. Thomson and worked on the reflection of x-ray waves by planes of atoms in crystals, in order to reveal the position of atoms thus developing crystal analysis. The relationship between the angle of incidence and wavelength, and between parallel atomic planes is known as Bragg's Angle' orBragg's Law'. He worked on crystal structure and its arrangement in sodium and potassium. He also worked with his father, William Henry Bragg, particularly on the structure of diamond, resulting in a joint publication in 1915 called X-Rays and Crystal Structure. It was for this work with his father that he jointly won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1915, and at 25 years old, he remains the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Prize. During the First World War and until 1919, William Lawrence (he was known as Lawrence in order to distinguish him from his father) primarily served in the Royal Horse Artillery until he became Technical Adviser to the Map Section in order to research into sound ranging to locate enemy guns. In 1919 he became Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester, a position he held until 1937. He set up the School of Crystallography at Manchester and introduced the study of atomic radii, x-ray diffraction, scattering atoms, analysing structures, branch of optics, order-disorder changes and metals, alloys and silicate. He developed quantitative crystallography and worked on the structure of minerals and later, protein. In 1921 he married Alice Hopkins and they had four children, Stephen Lawrence, David William, Margaret Alice and Patience Mary. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1921. In 1937 he became Director of the National Physics Laboratory, but only until 1938 when he became Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge. He held this position until 1953 having reorganised the Cavendish Laboratory into separate branches of physics. It was split into nuclear physics, low temperature physics, radio physics, crystallography and metal physics. Whilst at Cambridge, he realised the potential of using crystal analysis on living cells, after Max Perutz had shown him an x-ray photograph of haemoglobin. In the Second World War, Lawrence became a consultant to the sound ranging section of the army, and also to the Admiralty on underwater detection using sound waves (known as asdic or sonar). He was also on the Ministry of Supply Committee and assisted the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. In 1941 he went to Ottawa, Canada as a scientific liaison officer for the war effort. In 1941 he was knighted. From 1939 to 1943, he was President of the Institute of Physics, whereby he promoted x-ray research and also became the first President of the International Union of Crystallography. In 1947 he helped set up what became the Medical Research Council Laboratory of molecular biology at the Cavendish laboratory, Cambridge. Under his direction, Francis Crick and James Watson determined the double helix structure of DNA. In 1953 he became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI). In 1954 he became Director of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory at the RI, and developed it into a major centre for x-ray analysis. He was the first person to be denominated Director of the RI. He introduced corporate membership to the RI and performed lectures on television for the first time. He worked closely with Max Perutz and John Kendrew at Cambridge (who gained a Nobel Prize for their work on proteins) and under his guidance David Phillips (later Lord), determined the structure of lysozyme in 1965 which was the first enzyme to have its structure identified. Lawrence was Chairman of the Frequency Advisory Committee from 1958 to 1960. He retired from the RI in 1966, but continued to lecture there until 1971. He gained several medals in his career including the Hughes medal in 1931, the Royal Medal in 1946 and the Copley medal in 1966 from the Royal Society. He published many articles and books such as `The Diffraction of Short Electromagnetic Waves by a Crystal' in Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1912; The Crystalline State in 1934 and others in journals such as Philosophical Magazine, Transactions of the Faraday Society and Proceedings of the Royal Society. Lawrence died near Waldringfield, Suffolk in 1971.
David Gregory of Kinnairdie (1627-1720), inventor: apprenticed by his father to a mercantile house in Holland; returned in 1655, and succeeded to the estate of Kinnairdie on the death of an older brother; highly regarded in medicine, having a large gratuitous practice both among the poor, and people of standing; first man in Aberdeenshire to possess a barometer, and his weather forecasts exposed him to suspicions of witchcraft; moved to Aberdeen and investigated artillery; with the help of an Aberdeen watchmaker constructed an improved model of a cannon, forwarding it to his eldest son David, and to Sir Isaac Newton, who held it was 'for the diabolical purpose of increasing carnage', and who urged him to break it up.
David Gregorie (1661-1708), astronomer: son of David Gregory (1627-1720); Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh University in 1683; first professor to lecture publicly on Newtonian philosophy, and enthusiastic promoter of Newton's 'Principia'; in 1691 went to Oxford where he was introduced to Newton, who became an intimate friend and who with John Flamsteed influenced his appointment as Savilian Professor of Astronomy in Oxford; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1692; his principal work Astronomiae Physicae et Geometricae Elementa in 1702 was the first text book composed on gravitational principles and remodelling astronomy in conformity with physical theory; approved by Newton, who had included in it his lunar theory, and for which he wrote a preface; Gregory was a skilful mathematician who left manuscript treatises on fluxions, trigonometry, mechanics and hydrostatics, and who was also known for his printing in 1703 of all the writings attributed, with any show of authority, to Euclid.
James Gregory (1638-1675), mathematician: younger brother of David Gregory (1627-1708); his scientific talent was discovered and encouraged by his brother, and in 1673 at the age of 24 he published his Optica Promota, containing the first feasible description of a reflecting telescope, his invention of it dating from 1661, and inspiring Newton to make his own reflecting telescope; studied mathematics in Padua, 1664-1667, publishing Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura in 1667, showing how to find the areas of the circle, elipse, and hyperbole by means of converging series, and applying the same new method to calculation of logarithms; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1668; friendly debate with Newton, 1672-1673, as to merits of their respective telescopes; from 1674 first exclusively mathematical professor at Edinburgh.
Charles Gregory was one of the 32 children of David Gregory (1627-1720) and brother of the second David Gregory (1661-1708).
The origins of the Royal Society lie in an "invisible college" of natural philosophers who began meeting in the mid-1640s to discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon. Its official foundation date is 28 November 1660, when 12 of them met at Gresham College after a lecture by Christopher Wren, the Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and decided to found 'a Colledge for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning'. This group included Wren himself, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Sir Robert Moray, and William, Viscount Brouncker.
The Society was to meet weekly to witness experiments and discuss what we would now call scientific topics. The first Curator of Experiments was Robert Hooke. It was Moray who first told the King, Charles II, of this venture and secured his approval and encouragement. At first apparently nameless, the name The Royal Society first appears in print in 1661, and in the second Royal Charter of 1663 the Society is referred to as 'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge'.
The Society found accommodation at Gresham College and rapidly began to acquire a library (the first book was presented in 1661) and a repository or museum of specimens of scientific interest. After the Fire of 1666 it moved for some years to Arundel House, London home of the Dukes of Norfolk. It was not until 1710, under the Presidency of Isaac Newton, that the Society acquired its own home, two houses in Crane Court, off the Strand.
In 1662 the Society was permitted by Royal Charter to publish and the first two books it produced were John Evelyn's Sylva and Micrographia by Robert Hooke. In 1665, the first issue of Philosophical Transactions was edited by Henry Oldenburg, the Society's Secretary. The Society took over publication some years later and Philosophical Transactions is now the oldest scientific journal in continuous publication.
From the beginning, Fellows of the Society had to be elected, although the criteria for election were vague and the vast majority of the Fellowship were not professional scientists. In 1731 a new rule established that each candidate for election had to be proposed in writing and this written certificate signed by those who supported his candidature. These certificates survive and give a glimpse of both the reasons why Fellows were elected and the contacts between Fellows.
The Society moved again in 1780 to premises at Somerset House provided by the Crown, an arrangement made by Sir Joseph Banks who had become President in 1778 and was to remain so until his death in 1820. Banks was in favour of maintaining a mixture among the Fellowship of working scientists and wealthy amateurs who might become their patrons. This view grew less popular in the first half of the 19th century and in 1847 the Society decided that in future Fellows would be elected solely on the merit of their scientific work.
This new professional approach meant that the Society was no longer just a learned society but also de facto an academy of scientists. The Government recognised this in 1850 by giving a grant to the Society of £1,000 to assist scientists in their research and to buy equipment. Therefore a Government Grant system was established and a close relationship began, which nonetheless still allowed the Society to maintain its autonomy, essential for scientific research. In 1857 the Society moved once more, to Burlington House in Piccadilly, with its staff of two.
The Royal Society Building Over the next century the work and staff of the Society grew rapidly and soon outgrew this site. Therefore in 1967 the Society moved again to its present location on Carlton House Terrace with a staff which has now grown to over 120, all working to further the Royal Society's roles as independent scientific academy, learned society and funding body .
Born, 11 October 1886; fourth son of Colonel Sir Alfred Mordaunt Egerton, KCVO, and the Hon Mary Georgina Ormsby-Gore, eldest daughter of the 2nd Baron Harlech; known from childhood as Jack; attended Eton College, from 1900; his science master was Thomas Cunningham Porter and while at the school Egerton was encouraged to found the Eton College Scientific Society; continued his studies at University College, London, from 1904; read Chemistry under Sir William Ramsey and graduated with first class honours, 1908; his research field was Thermodynamics; worked under Professor Ganz at Nancy University, 1909; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 1909-1913; worked with W H Nernst in Berlin, 1913; Department of Explosives Supply, Ministry of Munitions, 1914-1918; Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, 1918-1935; appointed Reader in Thermodynamics, Oxford University, 1923; elected Fellow of The Royal Society, 1926; served on Council of The Royal Society, 1931-1933; Chair of Chemical Technology, Department of Chemical Technology and Applied Physical Chemistry, Imperial College, 1936-1952; Physical Secretary of The Royal Society, 1938-1948; research on fuel, fire-raising and fire protection, 1939-1945; member of War Cabinet Scientific Advisory Committee; chairman of the Fuel and Propulsion Committee of the Admiralty; ex-officio member of committees connected with The Royal Society; travelled to the USA to reorganise the work of the British Central Scientific Office and to improve scientific liaison between London and Washington, 1942; knighted, 1943; Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1948; closely involved in the organization of the Royal Society Scientific Information Conference, London, 1948; travelled abroad, with a special interest in India, which he visited, 1948, 1954; appointed chairman of a committee to review the working and development of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Director, Salters Institute of Industrial Chemistry, 1949-1959; Emeritus Professor of Chemical Technology, University of London, 1953-1959; Chairman, Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, India, 1954; Adviser to the Tobacco Manufacturers' Standing Committee, 1956; undertook a tour of the Middle East (Beirut, Baghdad and Teheran), 1957; received various Fellowships, honours and awards; Fellow of University College, London, Imperial College and City and Guilds College; honorary degrees from Birmingham, Cairo, Nancy and Helsinki; Honorary President of Combustion Institute; Honorary Editor of Fuel and also of Combustion and Flame; British Coal Utilization Research Associations: Coal Science Lecturer, 1952; Institution of Mechanical Engineers: George Stephenson Research Prize, Herbert Akroyd Stuart Prize, and Thomas Hawkesley Lecturer for 1940; Institution of Civil Engineers: the Telford Premium, 1942; The Royal Society: Rumford Medal, 1946; Institution of Chemical Engineers: Hinchley Memorial Medal, 1954; Institute of Fuel: Melchett Medal, 1956; Combustion Institute: Egerton Medal, 1958; married the Hon Ruth Cripps, 1912; adopted Francis, the posthumous younger son of Egerton's brother Louis who had been killed in the First World War; a keen watercolourist, with an exhibition of his paintings held at the Chenil Galleries, 1957; died in France, in the Alpes-Maritimes, 7 September 1959. Publications: The 1939 Callendar Steam Tables with G S Callendar (E Arnold & Co, London, 1939); Editor of Fuel; lectures and papers largely relating to combustion and utilization of energy.
Scientific papers sent to the Society with a view to publishing, these were either not published or abstracted after being read at meetings of Fellows, and subsequently deposited in the archives.
Tansley (1871-1955) was educated at Highgate School, University College London, and Trinity College Cambridge (MA). He was Demonstrator and later Assistant Professor of Botany at University College London, 1893-1906; University Lecturer in Botany, Cambridge, 1906-1923; President of the Botanical Section, British Association, 1923; Fellow of Magdalen College and Sherardian Professor of Botany, Oxford, 1927-1937. He was founder, 1902, and editor, for 30 years, of the New Phytologist, and editor, for 21 years, of the Journal of Ecology; President of the British Ecological Society, 1913-1915 and 1938-1940; Chairman of the Nature Conservancy, 1949-1953; and President of the Council for the Promotion of Field Studies from 1947. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1915; received the Linnean Gold Medal in 1941; Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge from 1944; and knighted in 1950.
Tansley was secretary to the Scientific Research Association and also a member of the Cambridge Branch of the National Union of Scientific Workers (see AT/1/2/1). Due to Tansley's role as secretary, more administrative material relating to the Scientific Research Association is to be found in this collection than for the National Union of Scientific Workers. Two rival histories of the genesis of both organisations can be found in this collection at AT/2/4/3 and AT/2/6/1/34. The Scientific Research Association was officially founded in February 1918 with the aim of promoting pure scientific research. The National Union of Scientific Workers was founded in October 1918 and negotiations over a possible merger or accommodation between the two organisations are evident from the surviving correspondence in AT/2/6. Whilst a merger between the two organisations was rejected a federation of Associations was considered by the National Union of Scientific Workers (see AT/1/3/2). The 'Federation of Technical and Scientific Associations' at AT/3 is possibly the federation suggested by the National Union of Scientific Workers. It is unclear from the surviving material in this collection how long these organisations existed, although due to insufficient support from the scientific community the Scientific Research Association considered altering the constitution and organisation of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and working through that body rather than forming a separate organisation (see AT/2/3/9 and AT/2/7).
Bawden was born in North Tawton, Devon, and educated at local grammar schools and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1926-1930, where he read for Part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos and the Cambridge Diploma in Agricultural Science. After graduating from Cambridge he worked as Research Assistant to R.N. Salaman at the Potato Virus Research Institute in Cambridge. In 1936 he moved to Rothamsted Experimental Station, Hertfordshire, as Virus Physiologist, and became successively Head of the Plant Pathology Department, 1940-1958, Deputy Director, 1950-1958, and Director from 1958 to his death. Bawden served on many committees, and on the Council of the Royal Society of which he was also Treasurer. He lectured and travelled widely and was frequently invited to advise on overseas agricultural projects. He was elected FRS in 1949 (Leeuwenhoek Lecture 1959) and knighted in 1967.
Blackett was born in Kensington, London. He was educated at the Osborne Naval College and Dartmouth College for a career in the Royal Navy and saw action during the First World War at the Battle of Jutland. He resigned from the navy at the end of the war and entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, to read for the Natural Sciences Tripos, 1919-1921. He became a research student under Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory in 1921, working with cloud chambers. In 1924 he succeeded in obtaining the first photographs of an atomic transmutation, which was of nitrogen into an oxygen isotope. He continued to develop the cloud chamber and in 1932, with the assistance of G. Occhialini, he designed a cloud chamber in which photographs of cosmic rays were taken automatically. Early in 1933 the device confirmed the existence of the positron. In the same year he became Professor of Physics at Birkbeck College, London, where he continued his cosmic ray studies, demonstrating in 1935 the formation of showers of positive and negative electrons from gamma rays in approximately equal numbers. In 1937 he succeeded W.L. Bragg as Langworthy Professor of Physics at Manchester University, continuing his cosmic ray work. He was brought into the Air Defence Committee in 1936 by H.T. Tizard and during the Second World War he contributed to or directed several research projects such as proximity fuses and bombsights and greatly developed the technique of operational research, notably as applied to controversies over bombing policy and the U-boat campaign. He returned to academic life at the end of the war and, as a consequence of his research into cosmic rays, became interested in the history of the Earth's magnetic field and turned to the study of rock magnetism. In 1953 he was appointed Head of the Physics Department at Imperial College, London, where he built up a team specialising in rock magnetism. He was Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Fellow, 1965-1974. Blackett was always politically committed to the left, and in later years to developing countries and especially to India. At certain periods he exerted influence, particularly after the Labour Party's General Election victory in 1964 when he became Deputy Chairman and Scientific Adviser, Advisory Council on Technology, Ministry of Technology.
Blackett received many honours and awards both in Britain and internationally. He was elected FRS in 1933 (Bakerian Lecture 1939, Royal Medal 1940, Copley Medal 1956, PRS 1965-1970), and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948 for his work on particle disintegration and cosmic rays. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1967 and received a Life Peerage in 1969.
The Roll proper ceased in 1940. It was superceded by the 'Personal Records', and subsequently the Sackler Resource (electronic database of Fellows).
Blagden was born at Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucestershire. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and received his M.D. in 1768. He was elected FRS in 1772 and served as a medical officer in the British Army from about 1776 to 1780. He was Henry Cavendish's assistant from 1782 to 1789, from whom he received an annuity and a considerable legacy. Blagden succeeded Paul Henry Maty as Secretary of the Royal Society in 1784 (while the Society was divided over the efficacy of its President, Sir Joseph Banks, a close friend of Blagden's), serving until 1797. Both in this capacity and as Cavendish's assistant he became involved in the prolonged 'water controversy' - who had priority in discovering the composition of water, claimed by both Cavendish and James Watt in England and A L Lavoisier in France. Blagden admitted responsibility for conveying, quite well-meaningly, word of the experiments and conclusions of both Cavendish and Watt to Lavoisier; and he overlooked errors of date in the printing of Cavendish's and Watt's papers. His experiments on the effects of dissolved substances on the freezing point of water led to what became known as 'Blagden's Law', where he concluded that salt lowers the freezing point of water in the simple inverse ratio of the proportion the water bears to it in the solution. In fact Richard Watson had first discovered the relationship in 1771. Blagden spent much of his time in Europe, particularly in France, where he had many friends among French scientists such as C L Berthollet. He died in Arcueil in 1820. He was knighted in 1792.
Either sent to the Royal Society, presented at meetings of Fellows, or commissioned by the Society. Final papers concerning trade in Cl.P/25 and those on the same subject in Cl.P/3(i) date from the first half of the 17th century, and were acquired from a different source. The present 25 volumes (bound as 31 volumes) may have originally been bound as 39.
At school, Christopher, like his brother Michael, proved an accomplished mathematician but after winning a scholarship to Oxford decided to turn his efforts to chemistry. Graduating in 1945 with a first-class honours degree, he went on to hold various prestigious positions at the University of Manchester, King's College London, and Chicago University and in 1954 was appointed Humphrey Plummer Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge.
Using the tools of quantum and statistical mechanics he made major contributions to the study of the structure and properties of molecules and to molecular spectroscopy. Understanding the benefit of communication between disciplines, Christopher also combined the voices of molecular chemistry and physics to become the founder of the journal Molecular Physics. At home with some of the greatest minds of the day, Christopher could include the Nobel Prize winning Gerhard Herzberg FRS in his list of many correspondents and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1958.
In the late 1960s Christopher's career made another move towards interdisciplinary research when he made the dramatic decision to leave chemistry and enter the field of artificial intelligence. Always taking an active interest in the contribution of scientific analysis to philosophical questions, his research now focused on the study of the mind. Bringing together groups in computer engineering, computer science, linguistics and experimental psychology, Christopher coined the term 'cognitive science' to cover areas as diverse as informatics, neural networks, perception and language generation and co-founded the first school of Epistemics at the University of Edinburgh.
Having always had an aptitude for music - Christopher was both a talented performer and composer- in his later years he also gave fresh insight into the theory of music. Among his work, some of which remained unpublished at his death, include computer programs for parsing Bach and research into the algorithmic analysis of harmony, rhythm and metre. With his eye for big questions, the collection also shows Christopher's interest in the effects of modern transport on climate change as well as correspondence with Francis Crick FRS concerning consciousness, indicating that he was indeed a true all-round scientist and polymath.
These Council Minutes were created at the end of the eighteenth century at the same time as the Journal Books Copy and continued to the early nineteenth century for security reasons.
The Council for Science and Society was established in 1972 as an independent organization with the stated objectives 'to promote the study of and research into the social effects of science and technology: and to disseminate the results thereof to the public'.
Born in Glencorse, Midlothian, Scotland; educated at Greenheyes Collegiate School, Manchester; BSc, Owens College Manchester; MA Cantab; BSc. Vict; Fellow, Sidney Sussex College, 1900; University Reader in Electric Meteorology, Cambridge; Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy, Cambridge, 1925-1934; elected FRS, 1900; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1928-1929; received Hughes Medal, 1911; Royal Medal, 1922; Copley Medal, 1935; Nobel Prize (Chemistry), 1927.
The origins of the Royal Society lie in an "invisible college" of natural philosophers who began meeting in the mid-1640s to discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon. Its official foundation date is 28 November 1660, when 12 of them met at Gresham College after a lecture by Christopher Wren, the Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and decided to found 'a Colledge for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning'. This group included Wren himself, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Sir Robert Moray, and William, Viscount Brouncker. The Society was to meet weekly to witness experiments and discuss what we would now call scientific topics. The first Curator of Experiments was Robert Hooke. It was Moray who first told the King, Charles II, of this venture and secured his approval and encouragement. At first apparently nameless, the name The Royal Society first appears in print in 1661, and in the second Royal Charter of 1663 the Society is referred to as 'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge'. The Society found accommodation at Gresham College and rapidly began to acquire a library (the first book was presented in 1661) and a repository or museum of specimens of scientific interest. After the Fire of 1666 it moved for some years to Arundel House, London home of the Dukes of Norfolk. It was not until 1710, under the Presidency of Isaac Newton, that the Society acquired its own home, two houses in Crane Court, off the Strand. In 1662 the Society was permitted by Royal Charter to publish and the first two books it produced were John Evelyn's Sylva and Micrographia by Robert Hooke. In 1665, the first issue of Philosophical Transactions was edited by Henry Oldenburg, the Society's Secretary. The Society took over publication some years later and Philosophical Transactions is now the oldest scientific journal in continuous publication. From the beginning, Fellows of the Society had to be elected, although the criteria for election were vague and the vast majority of the Fellowship were not professional scientists. In 1731 a new rule established that each candidate for election had to be proposed in writing and this written certificate signed by those who supported his candidature. These certificates survive and give a glimpse of both the reasons why Fellows were elected and the contacts between Fellows. The Society moved again in 1780 to premises at Somerset House provided by the Crown, an arrangement made by Sir Joseph Banks who had become President in 1778 and was to remain so until his death in 1820. Banks was in favour of maintaining a mixture among the Fellowship of working scientists and wealthy amateurs who might become their patrons. This view grew less popular in the first half of the 19th century and in 1847 the Society decided that in future Fellows would be elected solely on the merit of their scientific work. This new professional approach meant that the Society was no longer just a learned society but also de facto an academy of scientists. The Government recognised this in 1850 by giving a grant to the Society of £1,000 to assist scientists in their research and to buy equipment. Therefore a Government Grant system was established and a close relationship began, which nonetheless still allowed the Society to maintain its autonomy, essential for scientific research. In 1857 the Society moved once more, to Burlington House in Piccadilly, with its staff of two. The Royal Society Building Over the next century the work and staff of the Society grew rapidly and soon outgrew this site. Therefore in 1967 the Society moved again to its present location on Carlton House Terrace with a staff which has now grown to over 120, all working to further the Royal Society's roles as independent scientific academy, learned society and funding body .
Certificates of Election were created as a result of a meeting of Council on 7 December 1730 when a draft of a new statute was proposed with the intention of limiting membership of the Society. The Statute proposed that each candidate for election should be recommended by three existing Fellows, 'who shall deliver to one of the Secretaries a paper signed by themselves, signifying the name, addition, profession, occupation, and chief qualifications of the Candidate for election, as also notifying the usual place of habitation'. Such certificates were dated and hung in the meeting room for ten gatherings of Fellows before being balloted, and bear the signatures of those Fellows supporting the candidate, with the date of election. Certificates were not made compulsory until 1847 when new statutes were enacted. Therefore there may not be a certificate for every Fellow elected in the period 1731 to 1849.
The number of Fellows elected annually varies, and the Statutes have to be changed to accommodate the changed numbers. In 2006 the numbers of Foreign Fellows were raised from 6 to 8, to take effect in 2007 (require amendment of Statute 3 (c) and Standing Orders 22 c) and 26.)
The number of new nominations made in any year is unlimited. Once nominated, candidates remain eligible for election for seven years. If not elected within this period, an individual may be proposed as a candidate again after a break of three years and then remains eligible for election for a period of three years. This three year cycle may be repeated without limit eg there were 564 candidates for election as Fellows in 2005. The Society does not provide details of the identities of nominated candidates to anybody outside the Fellowship, except those individuals consulted in confidence during the refereeing process.
The nominations process was made easier in 2001 by reducing from six to two the number of Fellows signatures required on a certificate of proposal. This change was introduced because it was felt that the larger number of signatures might discriminate against minorities in science, such as women, those in new and emerging subjects or those in institutions and organisations with few existing Fellows.
In addition, the President of the Royal Society periodically writes to Vice-Chancellors, and Chairs and Chief Executives of Research Councils, to encourage them to put forward names of potential candidates. Any suggestions generated through this route are considered before 30 September by the President, Vice-Presidents and one or more members of the Council of the Royal Society. These suggestions, if thought suitable, then follow the normal nomination process, with the proposing and seconding of a candidate by existing Fellows.
The Society has also broadened the scope of candidates to encourage nomination and election of scientists, technologists and engineers whose major contribution to their subject has been other than through original research, for example by leadership, inspiration or furtherance of science in a senior managerial or administrative capacity, or through science communication.
The proposing Fellow is responsible for informing the candidate that he or she has been nominated. The proposer must ensure, in consultation with the candidate, that all information relevant to the nomination is up to date.
Francis (Franz) Simon received a classical education, but developed a strong interest in science and went to Munich in 1912 to read physics. He was called up for military service in 1913, and from 1914-1918 served as lieutenant in field artillery. He resumed his studies at University of Berlin in 1919, and in 1920 started work for his Ph.D under Nernst who is known for his heat theorem or third law of themodynamics. Simon's research concerned measurement of specific heats at low temperatures, which remained the basis of his scientific interest throughout his life. He received his doctorate in 1921 and in 1924 became 'Privatdozent', then associate professor in 1927. In 1931 he was appointed to the chair of Physical Chemistry at the Technical University of Breslau, and spent part of 1932 as visiting professor at Berkeley. In June 1933 he resigned and accepted the invitation of FA Lindemann (later Lord Cherwell) (1886-1957) to work at the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford, where KAG Mendelssohn (1906-1980), one of his former co-workers, had set up a helium liquefaction plant. He was accompanied by Nicholas Kurti (1908-1998), another member of his Berlin School. In 1935 he was appointed Reader in Thermodynamics, and Professor, 1945-1956. He succeeded Lindemann as Lee Professor of Experimental Philosophy, but died only a few weeks after his appointment. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1941, and received the Rumford Medal in 1948; received the first Kamerlingh Onnes Medal of the Dutch Institute of Refrigeration in 1950; and the Linde Medal in 1952. Also in 1952 he was elected a honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For his war work on atomic energy he received the CBE in 1946. He was knighted in 1955.
Brown was born in Liverpool on 9 February 1903, son of George William Arthur Brown, schoolmaster in Warrington, and Helen Wharram. He attended Boteler Grammar School in Warrington, and entered the University of Manchester on a scholarship to study medicine, where A V Hill, the Nobel prize winner, was his professor of physiology. He took an honours B.Sc. in physiology in 1924, then won the Platt Physiological Scholarship which enabled him to do research with B A McSwiney, earning an M.Sc. (1925). He qualified in Medicine in 1928 (MB, Ch.B Manch.), winning the Bradley Prize and medal for operative surgery. He joined McSwiney as lecturer in physiology at Leeds University in 1928, taking six months' leave to work in Sir C S Sherrington's laboratory at Oxford, and collaborating with J C Eccles. In 1934 Sir Henry Dale offered, and Brown accepted, a post at the National Institute for Medical Research in Hampstead, where he worked with (Sir) John Gaddum and W S Feldberg establishing the cholinergic theory of chemical transmission. In 1942 the Royal Naval Personnel Research Committee was established, and he became involved very successfully with diving and underwater operations, remaining Secretary to the RNPRC until 1949, and then its chairman until 1969. In 1949 he accepted the Jodrell Chair of Physiology at University College London, where he strenghthened the physiology and biophysics departments under (Sir) Bernard Katz and worked with J S Gillespie on adrenergic transmission. He served on various Royal Society committees, becoming Biological Secretary, 1955-1963. In 1960 he accepted the Waynflete chair of physiology in Oxford, becoming a Fellow of Magdalen. He also became a member of the Franks Commission of Inquiry into the working of Oxford University. In 1967 he resigned his chair to be elected Principal of Hertford College Oxford, although he continued with his research group in the pharmacology department. He was responsible for inaugurating the College's major apeal, negotiated two senior research fellowships, and dealt lightly with student restiveness. He married in 1930 Jane Rosamond, daughter of Charles Herbert Lees, FRS, Professor of Physics in the University of London and Vice-Principal of Queen Mary College, and had one daughter and three sons.
Son of a London businessman, Dale was educated at Tollington Park College, London; The Leys School, Cambridge; and Trinity College, Cambridge. He received first class honours in the natural science tripos in 1898, and succeeded Ernest Rutherford to the Coutts-Trotter studentship at Trinity. He was influenced by the physiologists of the 'Cambridge School', Michael Foster, W.H. Gaskell, J.N. Langley and H.K. Anderson. He began his clinical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital (1900-1903), receiving his B.Chir. in 1903 and his M.D. in 1909. He was George Henry Lewes Student and then Sharpey Student with the department of physiology of University College under Starling and Bayliss (1902-1904).
In 1904 he accepted the offer of a research post in physiology from (Sir) Henry Wellcome at the Wellcome Research Laboratories, where he worked for eighteen months as pharmacologist and the remainder of his ten years there as Director. In 1936, on the death of Sir Henry Wellcome, he became a trustee of the Wellcome Trust, becoming its chairman 1938-1960 and continuing as scientific advisor to 1968. In fact he continued to give advice until his death at age ninety three.
In 1914 he became Director of the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology of the Institute for Medical Research, which in 1920 became the National Institute for Medical Research at Hampstead. In 1923 he became chairman of the Committee of Departmental Directors, and in 1928, the first director of the Institute, a post he held until 1942, when he retired and became Director of the Royal Institution as well as Fullerian professor of chemistry until 1946.
While secretary of the Royal Society (1925-1935) he changed the form of publication of the obituary notices so they were published annually in one volume, and while president (1940-1945) he not only held a meeting of the Royal Society outside Britain for the first time, in India, but also raised the number of Fellows elected to twenty five, and enabled the revolutionary concept of admitting women as Fellows from 1945.
Born in Adelaide, Australia, 1898; educated at Kyre College, Adelaide, St. Peter's Collegiate School, Adelaide, and Adelaide University Medical School; worked his passage to England as ship's surgeon to take up a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, 1921-1922; did research work at the invitation of Charles Sherrington at Oxford, 1923; subsequently medical officer to the third Oxford University Arctic Expedition; John Lucas Walker Student, University of Cambridge, 1924; Rockefeller Travelling Fellow in America, studying microsurgical techniques, 1925; Freedom Research Fellow, London Hospital, 1926; Huddersfield Lecturer in Special Pathology, University of Cambridge, 1927; Fellow, Gonville and Caius College; Director Medical Studies, Gonville and Caius; began to study lysozome (discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1922), 1929; Joseph Hunter Professor of Pathology, University of Sheffield, 1932-1935; Professor of Pathology, University of Oxford, 1935-1962; Fellow, Lincoln College, Oxford, 1935; continued research on lysozome, leading to the development of use of penicillin by 1942; Nuffield Visiting Professor to Australia and New Zealand, 1944; involved in the foundation of the Australian National University, Canberra, especially with the design and organisation of the John Curtin School of Medical Research; Knight, 1944; Provost of Queen's College Oxford and resigned Chair of Pathology, 1962; Chancellor of the Australian National University, 1965; received many honours and awards both nationally and internationally; elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1941; received the Royal Medal, 1951; gave the Croonian Lecture, 1954; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1951-1953; President, 1960-1965; Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) jointly with Ernst Chain for his work on penicillin, 1945; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1951; Honorary Fellow, Lincoln College, Oxford, 1962; Lister Medal, Royal College of Surgeons, 1945; Berzelius Medal in Silver, Swedish Medical Society, 1945; Albert Medal, Royal Society of Arts, 1946; Medal in therapeutics from the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, 1946; Royal Society of Medicine Gold Medal, 1947; USA Medal of Merit, 1948; British Medical Association Gold Medal, 1964; Lomonosov Medal, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1965; Life Peer, 1965; appointed to the Order of Merit, 1965; married, firstly, 1926, Mary Ethel Hayter Reed (d 1966), 1926; married, secondly, Mrs Margaret Jennings, daughter of T F Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe, 1967; suffered from angina, and died of a heart attack, 1968.
Hinshelwood was born in London and educated at Westminster City School. He won a Brackenbury Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, but was unable to take it up immediately because of the First World War and from 1916 to 1918 he worked at the Department of Explosives, Queensferry Road Ordnance Factory. In 1919 he went to Balliol to do the foreshortened postwar honours course in chemistry and he made his career in Oxford until his retirement in 1964. He was Fellow of Balliol, 1920-1921, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, 1921-1937, and Dr Lee's Professor of Chemistry and Fellow of Exeter College, 1937-1964, in succession to F. Soddy. He was Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College, London, from 1964 until his death. Hinshelwood's scientific research was in chemical kinetics, and bacterial growth. He was President of the Chemical Society, 1946-1948, at the time of its centenary celebrations and President of the Royal Society, 1955-1960, his tenure including the Tercentenary Year. In addition to his wide participation in scientific life, he was a linguist with extensive interests in the arts, and in 1959 had the unique distinction of being at the same time President of the Royal Society and the Classical Association. Hinshelwood was elected FRS in 1929 (Bakerian Lecture 1946, Davy Medal 1942, Royal Medal 1947, Leverhulme Medal 1960, Copley Medal 1962) and in 1956 he shared with N.N. Semenov the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their researches into the mechanisms of chemical reactions. He was knighted in 1948 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1960.
The images of the Fellows of the Royal Society have been collected since the foundation of the Society in 1660.
Walter Stoneman worked for J Russell and Sons, photographers. They were based firstly at 73 Baker Street, London, later at 63 Baker Street, London. They moved to 49 Queens Gate, Kensington, possibly retaining the premises in Baker Street, as photographs dated between 1946 and 1954 bear either address. Walter Bird joined the company at 49 Queens Gate by 1959; Godfrey Argent took over from Bird in 1967. The business was renamed Godfrey Argent Studio (around 1975). Argent moved to 33 Queen's Gate Gardens (around 1972), then to Holland Park, London (1978).