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C. K. Ingold at University College London: educator and department head

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Gerrylynn K. Roberts
Gerrylynn K. Roberts
Affiliation:
Department of History of Science and Technology, Faculty of Arts, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA.
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Extract

The outstanding scientific work of Christopher Kelk Ingold (1893–1970) was the focus of considerable discussion, celebration and evaluation during the year of the centenary of his birth. In addition to understanding his prolific and highly original scientific output as a pioneer in the application of physical methods to organic chemistry and, indeed, as a founder of physical organic chemistry, it is also important to examine other aspects of Ingold's career, in particular his role in shaping the institutional context in which he developed his work. From 1930 until his death, Ingold was attached to a major international centre, the Chemistry Department of University College London. From 1937 to 1961, as its Head and Director of Laboratories, continuing the policies of his predecessor on chemical education and the organization of research, he developed a very distinctive chemistry department.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 65 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1996

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References

1 Different versions of this paper have been presented to the Royal Society of Chemistry, Annual Chemical Congress, Historical Group Symposium H/1, University of Southampton, and to the American Chemical Society, National Meeting, Historical Division Symposium, Chicago. I learned a great deal from participants in these symposia as well as from participants in the Royal Society of Chemistry, Perki Division, ‘Ingold Centenary Symposium’, which was held in the Christopher Ingold Laboratories of University College London on the centenary of Ingold's birth, 28 October 1993.

2 Shoppee, C. W., ‘Christopher Kelk Ingold, 1893–1970’, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1972), 18, 349–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Thorpe, J. F. to MrGow, , 24 09 1919.Google Scholar The initial arrangement was that Ingold would be given three years' leave from Cassell, Thorpe, J. F. to the Rector, , 11 11 1919Google Scholar (Professor J. F. Thorpe, Correspondence 1915–1919, Imperial College London Archives, KC/9/7, file 590). Ingold's enthusiasm extended to expressing willingness to accept a £100 (25 per cent) cut in annual salary (Baker, H. B. to MrGow, , 23 09 1919Google Scholar, Professor Baker, Correspondence, 1912–1932, Imperial College London Archives, KC/9/6).

4 Kon, G. A. and Linstead, R. P., ‘Sir Jocelyn Field Thorpe, 1872–1940’, Journal of the Chemical Society (1941), 444–64Google Scholar; Ingold, C. K., ‘Jocelyn Field Thorpe 1872–1939’, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society (1939–1941), 3, 531–43.Google Scholar The Kon and Linstead obituary is reprinted in British Chemists (ed. Findlay, A. and Mills, W. H.), London, 1946, 369–401.Google Scholar

5 University of Leeds, Minutes of the Organic Professorship Committee, 28 May 1923; Committee Book 14, University of Leeds, The University Archive.

6 Challenger, F. C., ‘Schools of Chemistry in Great Britain and Ireland IV – The Chemistry Department of the University of Leeds’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (1953), 71, 161–71, on 166.Google Scholar It was at Leeds that Ingold began his systematic work on the mechanism of organic reactions. It seems that Challenger's use of the word ‘formally’ is correct.

7 Freeth, F. A., ‘Frederick George Donnan, 1870–1956’, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1957), 3, 23–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 SirRamsay, William, 1852–1916, DNB, DSB.Google Scholar

9 ProfessorCollie, John Norman, 1859–1942, DNB.Google Scholar

10 University College London, Minutes of the Professorial Board, 26 November 1929, item 58, and 28 January 1930, item 106; University College London Records Office. Robert Robinson, Ingold's erstwhile disputant, held the UCL organic chair for only two years en route from Manchester to Oxford. Shoppee, , op. cit. (2), 355Google Scholar, suggests that Ingold and Robinson overlapped at UCL for an unspecified period, but I have not been able to confirm this in the College Records. Robinson's resignation from UCL was with effect from 31 July 1930.

11 University of London, Report of a Meeting of the Academic Council of Senate Subcommittee in Science, 24 February 1930 in University of London, Academic Council of Senate Minutes, 3 March 1930; University of London Archives, AC 1/1/30.

12 Ingold's appointment was ratified in University of London, Senate Minutes, 1929–30, 18 June 1930, to take effect from the start of the next session, 1 August 1930; University of London Archives, ST 2/2/46. As was common practice at the time, the post was not advertised, but three candidates were invited for interview. Shoppee, op. cit. (2), 355, mentions a rumour that Donnan would have preferred someone other than Ingold, but Donnan's specification certainly fitted Ingold.

13 University of London, Report of a Meeting of the Academic Council of Senate Subcommittee in Science, 1929–30, 24 February 1930, in Senate Minutes, 1929–30, 26 March 1930; University of London Archives, ST 2/2/46.

14 Dr G. S. Hartley (UCL: B.Sc. 1927, D.Sc. 1937), formerly Director of Research at Pest Control Ltd (Fison's), private communications, 1 April 1993 and 25 September 1994. A Donnan researcher from 1927 to 1932, Hartley feels in retrospect that he was left very much to his own devices when he became a researcher and would have appreciated more active supervision. Dr J. L. Moilliet (UCL: Ph.D. 1932), formerly of ICI Dyestuffs Division, Interview, 22 April 1993, recalls a feeling of disappointment with the formal supervision he received and was very grateful for Hartley's ‘unofficial’ supervision.

15 It is difficult to determine who moved with Ingold. During his first year at UCL, nineteen students were listed as working in the Organic Research Laboratory, of whom seven eventually published with Ingold and another three definitely worked with him. Of those who published, C. L. Wilson and possibly Miss C. M. Groocock, A. M. M. Mandour and K. I. Kuriyan made the move from Leeds, and E. D. Hughes came to UCL from elsewhere; three others had been UCL undergraduates. ‘Research Workers in the Chemistry Department, University College London, Session 1920–21 to Session 1959–60’, MS Ledger held by University College London, Chemistry Department; and Shoppee, , op. cit. (2).Google Scholar

16 Ingold, C. K. to Provost, , 22 10 1931Google Scholar; University College London Records Office, Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, File 31/3/6.

17 UCL Finance Secretary to Donnan, F. G., 2 12 1930Google Scholar; University College London Records Office, Chemistry Appointments, File 31/4/4. (This may of course have been merely a bargaining ploy; it would be difficult to conclude from it anything about the state of the laboratories during Collie's final years and Robinson's brief tenure.) The Secretary's letter to Ingold, C. K., 2 12 1930Google Scholar, in the same file, mentioned that Ingold had discussed the matter of laboratory funding several times with the Provost. See also Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, File 31/3/6 which deals with financial provision for organic chemistry in 1931.

18 C. K. Ingold to the Provost (Allen Mawer), 27 September 1932; University College London Records Office, Chemistry Appointments Files, File 31.

19 Dr D. W. Gillings, formerly of ICI Central Research Instruments Laboratory (UCL: B.Sc. 1936, Ph.D. 1938), Interview, 30 March 1993; Dr T. P. Nevell, formerly of UMIST (UCL: B.Sc. 1936, Ph.D. 1939, D.Sc. London 1967) and Mrs V. Nevell, formerly a school Head of Science (UCL: B.Sc. 1938), Interview, 17 April 1993.

20 For example, Dr Catherine (Tideman) Le Fevre, formerly of the University of Sydney (UCL: B.Sc. 1931, M.Sc. 1952, D.Sc), private communication, 21 July 1994.

21 Dr D. W. Gillings, Interview, 30 March 1993. Dr J. H. S. Green, formerly of the National Chemical Laboratory (UCL: B.Sc. 1950, Ph.D. 1953), Interview, 7 June 1993. However, Ingold's personal style as a supervisor, according to students from the 1940s and 1950s, was apparently similar to Donnan's; Professor Alwyn Davies of UCL (UCL: B.Sc. 1946, Ph.D. 1949, D.Sc), Interview, 1990; Professor D. J. Millen of UCL (UCL: B.Sc. 1943, Ph.D. 1947) and Professor J. H. Ridd of UCL (UCL: B.Sc. 1948, Ph.D. 1951), Interviews, 18 May 1993; and recollections made by Dr D. Davenport of Purdue University (UCL: B.Sc. 1947, Ph.D. 1950), in his talk ‘Gradus ad Parnassus: The Faraday Society Discussions of 1923, 1937 and 1941’, at the American Chemical Society National Meeting, Chicago, 24 August 1993. This should not, of course, be taken to imply that Ingold was not aware of students' work. See Ridd, J. H., ‘Sir Christopher Ingold’, Journal of the Chemical and Physical Society (UCL) (1973), 4, 15.Google Scholar Certainly from the 1940s, E. D. Hughes acted in some instances as a kind of ‘gatekeeper’ for Ingold as, in effect, did Ingold's wife, Edith Hilda Ingold; Professor H. Shine of Texas Tech University (UCL: B.Sc. 1945), Interview, 24 August 1993; Dr J. H. S. Green, ibid.; Professor B. Challis of The Open University (UCL: B.Sc. 1957, Ph.D. 1961), Interview, 24 May 1993. Dr E. H. Ingold, always known as ‘Mrs Ingold’ to the students, received a Ph.D. from Imperial College in 1922 and a D.Sc. in 1925, Shoppee, op. cit. (2), 371. In the 1920s and early 1930s, she published a number of papers jointly with her husband and helped with research supervision. During 1935–36 and from 1937 to 1939, she was listed as a research worker in the UCL department. From the time of the evacuation to Aberystwyth, she played an important, initially unpaid, administrative role. Ingold mentions the kind of role she came to assume in the preface to the first edition of his classic Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry, London, 1953, p. viGoogle Scholar: ‘I thank my wife, who has done most of the heavy routine work involved in the composition’.

22 ICI Research Council, University College Group, Analysis of Expenditure 1st October 1934 to 1st October 1935, ICI Millbank Archives, Box 96, ICHO/RES/0075. In fact, Donnan's association with ICI went back to the war from when he had been a consultant with Brunner-Mond, one of ICI's constituent companies. See Freeth, , op. cit. (7), 26Google Scholar; G. P. Pollitt (Director, Brunner, Mond & Co.) to Donnan, F. G., 31 12 1919Google Scholar; University College London Archive, Donnan Papers, fol. 2.

23 ICI Research Council, Grants to German Scientists, 12 March 1935, ICI Millbank Archives, Box 96, ICHO/RES/0075.

24 ICI Research Council, University Research Students, c. February 1937, ICI Millbank Archives, Box 96, ICHO/RES/0075.

25 DrGillings, D. W., Interview, 30 03 1993.Google Scholar

26 R. E. Slade, Proposals Re University College, 11 March 1936, ICI Millbank Archives, Box 96, ICHO/RES/0075. University College London, Minutes of the College Committee, 1 June 1937 records the financial impact of this on the department in a year when the College's allocation of funds to it was roughly £4000; University College London Records Office.

27 Donnan in fact stayed on for a year after the normal retirement age, which was not unusual under the regulations then in force, although a strong case had to be made on this occasion as the principle was challenged. See, Case for F. G. Donnan to retain his post for two years, 12 June 1935, University College London Records Office, Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, File 31/3/9. The need for stability after recent changes was cited as one reason for the extension.

28 1934–61, Academic Staff Appointments and Promotions Committee; 1934–37, Grants and Loans Committee; 1937–40, College Committee; 1943–59, Planning and Building Committee; 1950–60, Finance Committee; 1952–61, Departmental Grants Committee; 1943–50 and 1952–61, Technicians Committee. University College London Records Office, Staff Record Card for Sir Christopher Kelk Ingold.

29 During the period of Ingold's headship, 191 ‘registered’ research visitors came for various periods; see the Record Cards held by University College London, Chemistry Department. Data compiled by Janet Garrod at the Open University for Gerrylynn K. Roberts, ‘Chemists Prosopography Project’. There were also numerous unrecorded very short-term visitors.

30 Kathleen Lonsdale, from 1947, and Ronald Nyholm, from 1955, had a marked effect on grant income as they were both active in applying for external grants to support students and post-doctoral researchers as well as for the expensive equipment required by their respective researches. See University College London Records Office, Miscellaneous Grants Files, passim.

31 University College London Records Office, University College London, Minutes of the Standing Committee of Professorial Board on Department Grants notes frequent financial problems. For a specific example, see Ingold, C. K. to Provost, , 11 02 1955Google Scholar; University College London Records Office, Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, Chemistry Departmental Grant, File 31/3/37.

32 ProfessorMillen, D. J., Interview, 18 05 1993.Google Scholar

33 Ingold, C. K., ‘Edward David Hughes 1906–1963’, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1964), 10, 147–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Nyholm, R. S. to Provost, , 19 06 1963Google Scholar; University College London Records Office, Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, Chemistry Departmental Grant, File 31/3/37.

35 B.Sc.s compiled from Pass Lists published annually by the University of London, and Ph.D.s from annual issues of University of London, List of Higher Degrees Awarded. The B.Sc. figures include only those doing the Special Degree, not the General Degree. Ignoring three aberrant years during the change-over in London regulations, the UCL department's graduates amounted to roughly 18 per cent of the total number of Special Chemistry B.Sc.s of the University of London, with the later 1930s and later 1950s having figures on the higher side of the average. The Ph.D. figures fluctuated rather more from the average of 17 per cent, with generally larger numbers overall from the 1950s onwards; see ‘Chemists Prosopography Project’, op. cit. (29).

36 Compiled from University College London, Calendar or Annual Report, depending on the year. Note that the war years 1939–45 were reported on as a group as the College strove to get back to normal. Ingold preferred to publish papers in blocks which tackled a problem from a number of different angles. See Ingold, C. K. to Slade, R. E., 6 10 1941Google Scholar; ICI Millbank Archives, Box 447, ICHO/CFD/4472(ii); and ‘Report on Grant for Apparatus and Chemicals Session 1942–43’, C. K. Ingold to R. E. Slade, 13 September 1943; ICI Millbank Archives, Box 447, ICHO/CFD/4472(iii). This caused occasional frustration among research students who might have to wait a few years before seeing their work in print; Ridd, Interview, 18 May 1993. This policy also allowed Ingold to minimize and dodge criticism by publishing fairly comprehensively on topics.

37 University College London Records Office, Minutes of the College Committee, 2 May 1939, Appendix VIII.

38 University College London Records Office, Minutes of the College Committee, 19 December 1939, Appendix VI.

39 C. F. Goodeve, G. S. Hartley, R. J. Le Fevre, O. J. Walker and C. L. Wilson all went elsewhere. Of these, Wilson was the only ‘Ingold’ appointment. Some had already been looking for other posts before the war.

40 Ridd, , op. cit. (21)Google Scholar, and ‘Chemists Prosopography Project’, op. cit. (29). Sometimes this ‘recruiting’ was of a very casual, informal nature; Ridd, Interview, 18 May 1993, and R. J. Gillespie of MacMaster University (UCL: B.Sc. 1944, Ph.D. 1949), ‘One Hundred Years of Superacid Chemistry’, American Chemical Society National Meeting, Chicago, 25 August 1993 and ‘Ingold Centenary Symposium’, Royal Society of Chemistry, 28 October 1993. Perhaps because the orientation of the department was so unique in Britain, several of those who subsequently left in order to further their careers went to chairs abroad, particularly to the USA, Canada and Australia.

41 University of London, Minutes of the Board of Chemical Studies, 25 March, 6 May, 8 June 1926; 27 January and 8 June 1928. University of London Archive, AC 8/11/1/2.

42 The UCL initiative is recorded in University of London, Minutes of the Academic Council of Senate, 13 October 1924, University of London Archive, AC 1/1/25. For the final decision, see University of London, Minutes of the Board of Chemical Studies, 5 June 1931, University of London Archive, AC 8/11/1/2.

43 Oscar Lisle Brady (1890–1968), obituary in Chemistry in Britain (1968), 4, 554Google Scholar, was then reader in Organic Chemistry at UCL.

44 University of London, Minutes of the Board of Chemical Studies, 21 October 1932; 15 December 1933. University of London Archive, AC 8/11/1/2. Under the then current regulations, students who were exempted from the Intermediate B.Sc. had two years of course work for the Special B.Sc. and a third year devoted to undergraduate research.

45 This was reported in a summary when discussion was later revived; University of London, Minutes of the Board of Chemical Studies, 22 July 1942. University of London Archive, AC 8/11/1/3.

46 University of London, Minutes of the Board of Chemical Studies, 17 March 1939. University of London Archive, AC 8/11/1/3.

47 University College London Records Office, Minutes of College Committee, 4 July 1939, Appendix X.

48 University of London, Minutes of the Board of Chemical Studies, 26 January 1940. University of London Archive, AC 8/11/1/3.

49 Ingold, C. K., ‘Education in chemistry: the aim of the revised regulations in science degrees’, British Chemist (1953), 35, 2–4, on 3.Google Scholar

50 University of London, Minutes of the Board of Chemical Studies, 22 July 1942; 14 July, 21 September and 4 November 1943; 4 May 1944. University of London Archive, AC 8/11/1/3.

51 Ingold, , op. cit. (49)Google Scholar. The same issue of the British Chemist, and the subsequent one, indicated considerable scepticism expressed by other speakers and commentators about the value of the new degree for training chemists for industry. Indeed, Ingold saw the chemistry degree as a ‘foundation’ for future study and resisted collaboration with either chemical engineering or biochemistry at the undergraduate level. For him, those were postgraduate studies. Professor M. McGlashan of UCL, Interview, 14 November 1993; Professor B. E. C. Banks of UCL Department of Physiology (UCL: M.Sc. (Biochem) 1956, Ph.D. 1959), Interview, 14 June 1993.

52 The College's View on the New Chair, late 1936–early 1937, University College London Records Office, Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, File 31/3/5.

53 The chair was technically a University appointment and Samuel Sugden of Birkbeck College, who was known for his work on the parachor which was already seen as a closed research field, was appointed. Ingold had favoured the appointment of Fritz Paneth, then at Imperial College, to the chair and the College authorities backed him in this. Although Paneth is better known as a radiochemist, Ingold especially cited Paneth's expertise in free radical chemistry. It is tempting to suggest that Ingold saw this as an important area to bring into the department at this time. Paneth was not appointed, and Ingold did not take up free radical chemistry, which in relation to the reactions of organic chemicals in solution, was a new area of investigation in the field in the mid-1930s. It is unclear why the University did not appoint Paneth. He was shortly afterwards appointed Reader in Atomic Chemistry at Imperial College in 1938, University of London, Minutes of the Professoriate Committee, 5 January 1938, University of London Archives, AC 12/4/1. Shortly thereafter, he took a chair at the University of Durham.

54 University College London Records Office, Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, File 31/3/5. As regards quantum mechanics, Ingold expressed disappointment that Edward Teller had left after only a short spell in the department as a refugee in the 1930s. See Teller, Edward, ‘A word of thanks’, Journal of the Chemical and Physical Society (UCL) (1976), 4, 16.Google Scholar

55 In constructing his ICI-funded research programme, Donnan had similarly sought to build a team of varied expertise across fields and techniques which could be shared. Among the principal researchers were experts in Xray crystallography, electron diffraction, the reactions of active nitrogen, high energy discharges, colloids and surface phenomena. A current member of staff's spectroscopic expertise was also cited. ‘Proposed Organisation of Scientific Work at University College Chemical Department by Members of the Research Staff at Imperial Chemical Industries’, c. October 1928, ICI Millbank Archives, Box 321, ICHO/CFD/0395.

56 Professor G. A. Jeffrey of the University of Pittsburgh, private communication, 13 August 1993. Jeffrey was at the beginning of his career. He had done postgraduate work in the late 1930s and worked during the war for the British Rubber Research Association.

57 Jeffrey, G. A. to Ingold, C. K., 27 08 1945Google Scholar, University College London Records Office, Chemistry Appointments Files, File 31/3/9. The offer of collaboration was not, in the event, taken up.

58 Professor H. J. Milledge of UCL Department of Geology (UCL: Ph.D. 1951). Interview, 17 November 1993. Ingold and Lonsdale had overlapped at Leeds and had mutual interests in benzene. Professor Milledge notes that Lonsdale certainly did no service work for the department and, except for some joint research with Professor Craig, her interests were quite separate from those of the rest of the department.

59 ‘Statement of the Case for the Establishment of a Readership to Crystallography in the Department of Chemistry’, University College London Records Office, Minutes of the College Committee, 4 June 1946, Appendix X.

60 ‘Sir Ronald Sydney Nyholm, 1917–71’, obituary in Chemistry in Britain (1972), 8, 341.Google Scholar

61 Ingold, , op. cit. (51), 4.Google Scholar

62 Margaret E. Farago (Baldwin, UCL: Ph.D. 1959), ‘Ingold and Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms’, Royal Society of Chemistry Annual Chemical Congress, Southampton, 6 April 1993 and Fred Basolo, ‘Base Hydrolysis of Cobalt (III) Amines’, American Chemical Society National Meeting, Chicago, 25 August 1993. Nyholm received a UCL Ph.D. in 1950. See also Shoppee, , op. cit. (2), 368–9.Google Scholar

63 ‘Professor Ingold's Application to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for equipment for the development of a special research’, enclosed with Ingold, C. K. to Provost, , 15 10 1948Google Scholar, University College London Records Office, Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, File 31/3/24. Professor C. A. Bunton (UCL: B.Sc. 1941, Ph.D. 1945), now at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Interview, 25 August 1993.

64 Davies, , Interview, 1990Google Scholar; Millen, and Ridd, , Interviews, 18 05 1993.Google Scholar

65 University College London Records Office, Chemistry Miscellaneous Files, Chemistry Staff and Consultancy Work 31/3/61, correspondence in October and November 1956.

66 The Future Needs of the Chemistry Department, 31 January 1944. University College London Records Office, Post-war and Finance, 1939–45, fols. 277–97.

67 Of the 259 members of the 1929–37 cohort of B.Sc. Specials, 72 (28 per cent) went on to UCL Ph.D.s. Another 15 students did an M.Sc. or D.Sc. In addition, during that period, some 32 students who had done B.Sc.s elsewhere did a Ph.D. at UCL. Thus during the period overall, the postgraduate cohort was about 40 per cent of the size of the undergraduate cohort, while UCL graduates comprised two-thirds of the Ph.D. cohort. In fact, during Ingold's headship, the percentage of UCL undergraduates staying on remained remarkably similar, although they were a smaller segment of the total postgraduate cohort. Of the 661 students who completed B.Sc. Special Degrees in Chemistry at UCL between 1938 and 1961, 173 (26 per cent) went on to take Ph.D.s there by 1964; that is 46 per cent of the 370 UCL Chemistry Ph.D.s awarded between 1938 and 1964 (Chemistry has been taken to include Crystallography). See ‘Chemists Prosopography Project’, op. cit. (29).

68 ‘Future needs’, op. cit. (66), fol. 282.Google Scholar Interestingly, as mentioned above, Ingold's own approach to postgraduate tasks, though not one of ‘mass-production’, was to organize students to work on different angles of a particular problem in which he was interested. Some of the work would be quite routine and, on occasion, might repeat that of previous students. Several of my interviewees made this point.

69 ‘Future needs’, op. cit. (66), fol. 292.Google Scholar This was rather a contrast to Donnan's integrationist model.

70 Proposal for a Third Chair of Chemistry, n.d. (c. December 1947); and D. B. Pye (Provost), File note of conversation with Professor Ingold, n.d. (c. December 1947). University College London Records Office, Chairs of Chemistry Files, File 31/2/2. Still using the need for a theoretician as an argument, in 1954, Ingold negotiated the institution of a fourth chair in chemistry with special attention to theoretical chemistry. The ‘theoretical’ qualifier was attached for tactical reasons within the University and was soon dropped from the title once the chair was taken up by D. P. Craig (UCL: Ph.D. 1949), who was indeed a theoretician. Kathleen Lonsdale was awarded a personal chair, so there were five chairs in the department.

71 Correspondence between C. K. Ingold and B. Ifor Evans (Provost), 28 January 1957–15 February 1957. University College London Records Office, Ingold File, File 31/1/27. In the event, the retirement age for professors was raised to 67, so Ingold stayed on until 1961 (Evans to Ingold, 17 June 1957, ibid.).

72 Ingold, to Evans, , 29 03 1956.Google Scholar University College London Records Office, Ingold File, File 31/1/27.

73 Professor Ingold's Memorandum on Rebuilding the Department of Chemistry, February 1958. University College London Records Office, Chemistry Files, File 31/3/76.

74 Most of my interviewees made this point.

75 Ingold, to Evans, , 31 05 1961.Google Scholar University College London Records Office, Ingold File, File 31/1/27.

76 With regard to the new University of Lancaster, see ‘Lecture to the Lancastrian Frankland Society, 19 October 1962’, Churchill College Archives Centre, Cambridge, Todd Collection, 11/18.

77 Ingold, C. K., The Education of a Scientist, Ibadan, 1963.Google Scholar UCL had a formal relationship on behalf of the University of London with Ibadan to help it make the transition from an institution whose students took London degrees to an independent university. Ingold wished to accept the invitation, he said, because the department there had been largely built up by old students of UCL. Four Englishmen who did UCL B.Sc.s and received UCL Ph.D.s in 1950 made careers at the then University College of Ibadan, as did a Nigerian who received a Ph.D. in 1959; see ‘Chemists Prosopography Project’, op. cit. (29).

78 It was also unique in its lack of preparative organic and bio-organic chemistry, which made it very different from other departments.

79 Ingold, C. K., ‘University of East Anglia: First Thoughts on a Plan for a Faculty of Science’,12 09 1960Google Scholar; The Registry, University of East Anglia. Emphasis in the original.