Egerton, Sir Alfred Charles Glyn (1886-1959)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0117 AE
Held at	: Royal Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://royalsociety.org/collections/ ›
Full title	: Egerton, Sir Alfred Charles Glyn (1886-1959)
Date(s)	: 1898-1970
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 34 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Egerton | Sir | Alfred Charles Glyn | 1886-1959 | Knight | chemist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 11 October 1886; fourth son of Colonel Sir Alfred Mordaunt Egerton, KCVO, and the Hon Mary Georgina Ormsby-Gore, eldest daughter of the 2nd Baron Harlech; known from childhood as Jack; attended Eton College, from 1900; his science master was Thomas Cunningham Porter and while at the school Egerton was encouraged to found the Eton College Scientific Society; continued his studies at University College, London, from 1904; read Chemistry under Sir William Ramsey and graduated with first class honours, 1908; his research field was Thermodynamics; worked under Professor Ganz at Nancy University, 1909; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 1909-1913; worked with W H Nernst in Berlin, 1913; Department of Explosives Supply, Ministry of Munitions, 1914-1918; Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, 1918-1935; appointed Reader in Thermodynamics, Oxford University, 1923; elected Fellow of The Royal Society, 1926; served on Council of The Royal Society, 1931-1933; Chair of Chemical Technology, Department of Chemical Technology and Applied Physical Chemistry, Imperial College, 1936-1952; Physical Secretary of The Royal Society, 1938-1948; research on fuel, fire-raising and fire protection, 1939-1945; member of War Cabinet Scientific Advisory Committee; chairman of the Fuel and Propulsion Committee of the Admiralty; ex-officio member of committees connected with The Royal Society; travelled to the USA to reorganise the work of the British Central Scientific Office and to improve scientific liaison between London and Washington, 1942; knighted, 1943; Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1948; closely involved in the organization of the Royal Society Scientific Information Conference, London, 1948; travelled abroad, with a special interest in India, which he visited, 1948, 1954; appointed chairman of a committee to review the working and development of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Director, Salters Institute of Industrial Chemistry, 1949-1959; Emeritus Professor of Chemical Technology, University of London, 1953-1959; Chairman, Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, India, 1954; Adviser to the Tobacco Manufacturers' Standing Committee, 1956; undertook a tour of the Middle East (Beirut, Baghdad and Teheran), 1957; received various Fellowships, honours and awards; Fellow of University College, London, Imperial College and City and Guilds College; honorary degrees from Birmingham, Cairo, Nancy and Helsinki; Honorary President of Combustion Institute; Honorary Editor of Fuel and also of Combustion and Flame; British Coal Utilization Research Associations: Coal Science Lecturer, 1952; Institution of Mechanical Engineers: George Stephenson Research Prize, Herbert Akroyd Stuart Prize, and Thomas Hawkesley Lecturer for 1940; Institution of Civil Engineers: the Telford Premium, 1942; The Royal Society: Rumford Medal, 1946; Institution of Chemical Engineers: Hinchley Memorial Medal, 1954; Institute of Fuel: Melchett Medal, 1956; Combustion Institute: Egerton Medal, 1958; married the Hon Ruth Cripps, 1912; adopted Francis, the posthumous younger son of Egerton's brother Louis who had been killed in the First World War; a keen watercolourist, with an exhibition of his paintings held at the Chenil Galleries, 1957; died in France, in the Alpes-Maritimes, 7 September 1959. Publications: The 1939 Callendar Steam Tables with G S Callendar (E Arnold & Co, London, 1939); Editor of Fuel; lectures and papers largely relating to combustion and utilization of energy.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Correspondence, diaries and other papers of Sir Alfred Charles Glyn Egerton, including some personal papers but largely relating to The Royal Society and particularly to wartime activities and post-war research needs in Britain. The diaries form an almost complete record of Egerton's career during the period 1943-1959. Earlier diaries date back to 1917 and the period 1929-1930, but for the most part they relate to the period 1938-1941.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The collection has been arranged into 6 series:
AE/1 Royal Society business
AE/2 Diaries
AE/3 Personal correspondence and papers
AE/4 Visits abroad
AE/5 Awards and certificates
AE/6 Posthumous papers

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

List available in Library. Detailed catalogue available at http://www.a2a.pro.gov.uk

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The collection was presented to the Royal Society by Lady Ruth Julia Egerton in 1969 (see AE/6/6).

Allied Materials

Related material:

Archive material available in other repositories in the UK:
Imperial College Library: papers, 1908-59, comprising research papers, notes and reports largely relating to explosives, manufacture of ammonia and hydrogen, [1916-1925], laboratory work at Oxford, 1919-1926, work for the Admiralty, 1940-[1950], papers relating to patents, 1928-1958; research notebooks, 1908-1937, including some correspondence and notably concerning vapour pressure of metals, amides of metals, residual gases in discharge tubes; lecture notes concerning combustion; papers on optical pyrometry, 1933-1938; correspondence and papers relating to research on the properties of steam, steam tables, international conferences on steam, 1930-1946 (Ref: B/EGERTON). See also Chemisty Department papers (Ref: GB0098 KC) for correspondence relating to professorship at Imperial College.
Nuffield College Library, Oxford University: correspondence with Lord Cherwell, 1914-49 (Ref: Cherwell papers).
Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge University: correspondence with AV Hill, 1944-59 (Ref: AVHL).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Description produced by the Royal Society and revised by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Created 9/10/2001, modified 27/05/2002, revised Sep 2002