Randall , Sir , John Turton , 1905-1984 , knight , physicist

Born in Lancashire, 23 March 1905; educated at grammar school in Ashton-in-Makerfield and at the University of Manchester; First class honours degree in physics, 1925; MSc, 1926; employed on research by the General Electric Company, 1926-1937; awarded Royal Society fellowship to study electron processes in luminescent solids in the Physics Department at Birmingham University, 1937-1943; associated with Dr Henry Albert Howard Boot and Professor James Sayers at Birmingham University in the invention of the cavity magnetron, an essential element of radar; DSc, 1938; temporary lecturer, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 1943-1944; appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, 1944; Wheatstone Chair of Physics at King's College London, 1946; set up a group to study the structure and growth of the connective tissue protein collagen, 1951; Edinburgh University, 1970; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1946; knighted in 1962; Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1972; died 16 June 1984 at Edinburgh.

Publications: The Diffraction of X-Rays and Electrons by Amorphous Solids, Liquids, and Gases (Chapman & Hall, London, 1934); editor of Progress in biophysics and biophysical chemistry (molecular biology) with J A V Butler, (Butterworth-Springer, London, 1950); editor of Nature and Structure of Collagen. Papers presented for a discussion convened by the Colloid and Biophysics Committee of the Faraday Society at King's College, London, on 26 and 27 March, 1953 (Butterworths Scientific Publications, London, 1953).