Emeleus , Harry Julius , 1903-1993 , inorganic chemist

Born 22 June 1903 in Poplar, son of Karl Henry and Ellen, (nee Biggs), one of five children. Childhood spent in Battle, Sussex. Educated at St Leonard's Collegiate School Hastings, then at Hastings Grammar School. Obtained an exhibition (£30) at the Royal College of Science London (later became part of the Imperial College of Science and Technology) and awarded his Associateship with first class honours in 1923, taking a London External B.Sc. with a different syllabus later in the year, again obtaining first class honours. Researched inorganic chemistry under H.B. Baker at the Royal College of Science, investigating some aspects of the luminiscent oxidation of phosphorus. Wrote initial paper with W.E Downey, and when the latter was killed while climbing in the Alps he continued the research alone, developing elegant experimental techniques. Awarded Dixon Fund Essay Prize in 1925 and degree of Ph.D (London) conferred 1926. He spent 1927-1928 at the Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, working at the laboratory of one of the greatest German exponents of preparative inorganic chemistry, Alfred Stock. With his assistant Erich Pohland they isolated and characterized decaborane fot the first time. In 1929 on his return to London he was awarded the D.Sc degree of the University of London, and with a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship spent 1929-1931at Princeton University with Professor (later Sir) Hugh Taylor. Here he also met his wife, Mary Catherine Horton of Lynchburg, Virginia. He came back to Imperial College, London, first as a demonstrator, then as lecturer and Reader (1931-1945). In 1945 he took up a Readership at Cambridge, and then a personal chair of inorganic chemistry, becoming a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, and remained there for the rest of his life. He had a profound effect on the development of inorganic chemistry in Britain, and a lasting influence on the approach to the subject by research students from the UK, the Commonwealth, America and Europe. His book 'Modern Aspects of Inorganic Chemistry' (1938), co-authored with J S Anderson, revived interest in the subject. Subsequently in Cambridge he built up an internationally acclaimed school of inorganic chemistry which dominated the subject for several decades. Equally important was his influence on an astonishing number of students and collaborators who went on to distinguished careers and senior academic positions worldwide.