Otto Meyerhof, 1884 - 1951

Otto Meyerhof was born on 12 April 1884 in Berlin and died in Philadelphia on 6 October 1951 at the age of 67; he was the son of Felix Meyerhof, who was born in 1849 at Hildesheim, and Bettina Meyerhof, nee May, born in 1862 in Hamburg; both his father and grandfather had been in business. An elder sister and two younger brothers died long before him. In 1923 he shared the Nobel prize for Physiology (for 1922) with A. V. Hill. He received an Hon. D.C.L. in 1926 from the University of Edinburgh, was a Foreign Member (1937) of the Royal Society of London, an Hon. Member of the Harvey Society and of Sigma XI. In 1944 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. Otto Meyerhof went through his school life up to the age of 14 without delay, but there is no record that he was then brilliant. When he was 16 he developed some kidney trouble, which caused a long period of rest in bed. This period of seclusion seems to have been responsible for a great mental and artistic development. Reading constantly he matured perceptibly, and in the autumn of 1900 was sent to Egypt on the doctor’s advice for recuperation.

Lewis Fry Richardson, 1881 - 1953

Lewis Fry Richardson, D.Sc., F.R.S., who died quietly in his sleep, at Kilmun, Argyll, on 30 September 1953, had been a Fellow of the Society for 27 years and had contributed many papers to the Transactions and Proceedings. Richardson, born at Newcastle on Tyne on 11 October 1881, was the youngest child of David and Catherine Richardson who had a family of five boys and two girls. David Richardson was a tanner: the Richardsons had, in fact, been tanners for three hundred years. The story of the family is given in a book by A. O. Boyce, published in 1889 Records of a Quaker Family ; the Richardsons of Cleveland. Contemporary relatives of note were John Wigham Richardson, shipbuilder, a first cousin of David, and Henry Richardson Procter, F.R.S., Professor of Tanning at Leeds, a second cousin once removed (a third cousin of Lewis). Hugh Richardson, educationist and geographer, was Lewis’s elder brother; Sir Ralph Richardson, actor, his nephew. David Richardson’s mother, Sarah (née Balkwill) was the daughter of a pharmaceutical chemist in Plymouth and in her youth she got the nick-name ‘Sal volatile’ because she was gay. (As his father and grandfather both went south for their wives, it is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that Lewis did the same.)

Henri Alexandre Deslandres, 1853-1948

Henri Alexandre Deslandres was born in Paris on 24 July 1853. Destined for an Army career he was educated at the Ecole Polytechnique from 1872 to 1874. He secured rapid promotion and in 1879 he became Captain in the Engineers and qualified for staff appointments. But a scientific career had begun to appeal to him so strongly that in 1881 he retired from the Army and devoted himself to scientific research. Attached to the physics laboratory of the Ecole Polytechnique from 1883 to 1887 he published his first paper in 1885 on Relations entre le spectre ultra-violet de la vapeur d’eau et les bandes telluriques A, B, α du spectre solaire . In 1887 he joined M. Lippmann in the physics laboratory of the Faculty of Sciences of the Sorbonne. He obtained the degree of Doctor of Science in 1888 with a thesis on band spectra.

James Herbert Orton, 1884 - 1953

James Herbert Orton was born on 11 March 1884 at Bradford, Yorkshire, his father being George William Orton of Westmorland who married Sarah Rebacca West of farmer stock from Lincolnshire. James was the fourth child in a family of six brothers and six sisters, four of whom died as infants, one at the age of 12 and another at 27. He was town bred, but at an early age he became interested in the country and would spend whole Sundays on long walking expeditions hunting for frogs and newts, and birds nests. His childhood days were healthy and happy though owing to early financial troubles his parents had little means. At the age of 11 years, while attending part time at White Abbey Board School in Bradford, he was employed half-time as an errand boy. He himself has remarked that he thereby attained a certain degree of independence, a character for which he was noteworthy throughout his life. He enjoyed his school work and remembered especially his appreciation of one teacher who taught physiology and rugby football. When 13 years of age he became apprenticed as a mechanical dentist, serving his time until he was 21. During those years he attended evening classes at the Technical School and later took his London University Matriculation examination. In 1906 he won a National Scholarship in Biology and proceeded to the Royal College of Science, London, where he became a 1st class Associate in Zoology in 1909

Nevil Vincent Sidgwick, 1873-1952

Nevil Vincent Sidgwick, who died on 15 March 1952, came from a highly gifted family. His ancestors were Yorkshire farmers, but his great-grandfather became a successful cotton spinner in Skipton. His grandfather, William Sidgwick, broke away from the family business and was sent to Cambridge, where he became a Wrangler. He was Headmaster of Skipton School until his death in 1841. He had three sons and one daughter. The eldest son, William Carr Sidgwick, Nevil’s father, was born in 1834. The two younger sons, Henry and Arthur, were born in 1838 and 1840. Henry Sidgwick became the famous Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge. Arthur Sidgwick was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1864, but soon afterwards was appointed an assistant master at Rugby School, where he remained for fifteen years. He was elected to a tutorial fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1882, and later became University Reader in Greek. Mary Sidgwick, their sister, married in 1859 Edward White Benson, who was then an assistant master at Rugby, and later became Archbishop of Canterbury.

Arthur John Allmand, 1885-1951

This biography of Arthur John Allmand is compiled from the personal record he left with the Society, from appreciations of pupils and friends, and from the recollections of the author who worked side by side with him in Liverpool and maintained a life-long friendship with him. The plan of the biography is first to take the reader through the answers to the Society’s questions followed by an appreciation of his work and character. Allmand’s favourite dictum on a professor of one of the natural sciences was that he might be a great researcher, a great administrator or a great teacher. Sometimes he might shine in two of these categories but to do so in all three was unattainable for most people. This should be borne in mind, as it was undoubtedly the pattern to which his life conformed. Allmand’s father, Frank Allmand, was a flour miller of Wrexham, a quiet pale man like his son, who attained the great age of ninety years. His mother’s maiden name was Thomas and her father was a timber merchant of Wrexham.

Richard Higgins Burne, 1868 - 1953

Richard Burne was elected to the Royal Society in 1927 because of his eminence as a comparative anatomist and biologist; he died in a nursing home, at Godstone, Surrey, on the morning of 9 October 1953, being in his 86th year. He was born at 122 Gloucester Terrace, London, W.2, on 5 April 1868. His father, Richard Higgins Burne, was a successful solicitor at No. 1 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, W.C.2; his mother, Mayaretta Louisa Burne, was a distant cousin of his father. With the death of his elder brother Tom, in 1886, at the age of twenty, our Richard became an only child. All members of his ancestry were of pure English stock, being prosperous members of the professional or land-owning class. His father’s people came from Staffordshire (Loynton Hall, near Newport), while his m other’s people, for three generations, had been members of the medical profession in London. None of his forbears could claim a place in science; a niece of his father, Charlotte Sophia Burne, became the first woman President of the Folk-Lore Society. Richard’s maternal grandmother was a daughter of Dr Henry Ford, Professor of Arabic at Oxford and Principal of Magdalen Hall. Dr Ford’s wife was a niece of Dr John Butler, Bishop of Oxford, later of Hereford.

Felix Eugene Fritsch 1879-1954

Felix Eugene Fritsch was born on 26 April 1879. His father owned a small but very successful private school at Hampstead where his son was born, and Felix’s childhood was spent. Mr Fritsch’s gifts were primarily mathematical and musical, though his interests were centred on the latter and on classics. The musical bent was evidently an hereditary one since not only was the grandfather of Felix an operatic singer, but his grandmother also. Even in his latter years it was a pleasure to listen to old Mr Fritsch singing German leider. Felix inherited alike the mathematical capacity of his father and the lack of interest in its pursuit, but the parental delight in music was fully shared. Felix learnt to play the violin, and although he never attained great executive ability, he would justly describe himself as ‘a useful member of a quartet.

William Cecil Dampier, 1867-1952

Sir William Dampier was born in 1867 and named William Cecil Dampier Whetham. His early work was published under that name but later he changed his surname to that of his mother’s family. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Whetham family were small landowners in Dorset, but in the nineteenth century Dampier’s grandfather moved to London and became an important figure in its business life. He was knighted and became Lord Mayor of London. Dampier records that he acted as his grandfather’s page on state occasions. Dampier’s mother came from a Somerset family, one branch of which produced the famous explorer William Dampier. In early youth poor health prevented him from going to a public school, but in 1886 he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge. Here he came under the influence of J. J. Thomson who inspired him with a desire to undertake research in physics. After taking first class degrees in both parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos he started research work in 1889 at the Cavendish Laboratory. His first work was directed to finding out whether there is any slipping at the surface of a tube when a fluid passes through it. It had been thought that fluids which do not wet glass might slip, whereas those which do wet it would not. Dampier showed conclusively that there is no slipping. He next turned to the measurement of the velocity of ions in electrolytic solutions and devised an ingenious method in which direct measurements were made using a coloured solution. These measurements confirmed previous theories put forward by Hittorf and Kohlrausch. These researches led in 1891 to his being elected a fellow of Trinity. He remained a fellow of the college during the whole of the rest of his life

Mervyn Henry Gordon 1872-1953

Mervyn Henry Gordon, who died on 26 July 1953 at his home at Molesey, was a medical bacteriologist whose whole career was largely devoted to research: he occupied a leading position in this branch of medical science in London for the greater part of the first half of this century. Gordon was born on 22 June 1872, the sixth of ten children of Canon H. D. Gordon, Vicar of Harting, Sussex. His mother was a daughter of William Buckland, F.R.S., the first Professor, of Geology at Oxford and later Dean of Westminster, and was acquainted with many of the leading scientists of her time. The Gordon family was descended from Scots who migrated to the Gower peninsula in the time of Henry VII, and therefore had a strong Welsh as well as Scottish element in their ancestry. His paternal grandfather as well as his father was a Canon of the Church of England, and it was apparently with some hope that he might also enter the Church that Gordon was sent to Keble College, Oxford, after his earlier education at the Dragon School, Oxford and Marlborough. This was done in spite of a verdict from Marlborough that he was ‘backward’, and a recommendation that he be sent to the colonies.