Harry Raymond Ing, 31 July - 23 September 1974

Raymond Ing was a pioneer in establishing the subject of pharmacological chemistry, or as he preferred to call it chemical pharmacology, in Great Britain. Harry Raymond Ing was born at Alford, Lincolnshire, on 31 July 1899. His father and mother were both of Herefordshire stock. His father was orphaned at an early age and became a solicitor’s clerk, which he remained all his life. Raymond remembers him as an easy-going friendly person without ambition. His mother, in spite of much ill health, was an intensely active and ambitious person who dominated her husband and three sons and in spite of her husband’s limited situation always encouraged her children to think that they could make their mark in the world. Ing married in 1941 Catherine Mills Francis, an English scholar who subsequently became a university lecturer in English at Oxford. He and his wife had in common a profound interest in the meaning of words and structure of language. Ing’s education and career were closely bound up with Oxford. At 12 years old he won a scholarship to Oxford High School, a small grammar school which had as its main objective the training of boys for admission to Oxford University. The main subjects taught were Latin, English grammar and mathematics; Ing was especially grateful for the thorough training he received in Latin. He also owed a great deal to his science master who first aroused his interest in natural science and taught him to enjoy experimental work. During the last year at school a Fellow of New College, A. F. Walden, took three of the boys and gave them, at no charge, regular tutorials in physical chemistry. Walden later became Ing’s tutor at New College. Ing had tremendous admiration for Walden, recalling how he went away from his tutorials so excited about chemistry that frequently he did not get to bed until long after midnight.