John Lionel Simonsen Papers

Comprises documents relating to Sir John Lionel Simonsen. 

• Carved wooden casket presented to Professor Simonsen by his students at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, c. 1928
• File of newspaper cuttings etc., including obituary notices from The Times(21 February 1957); Journal of the Royal Society of Arts(no. 4998, vol. cv, 1 March 1957); Proceedings of the Chemical Society (March 1958) and Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (vol. 5, February 1960), 1943 - 1960
• Citation of Sir John Simonsen for the Davy Medal awarded to him by the Council of the Royal Society, 1950
• Certificate of the degree of Doctor of Science awarded to Sir John Simonsen by the University of Malaysia, 1953

Sir John Lionel Simonsen (1884-1957), research chemist, was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Manchester University where he later held a research fellowship and lectureship. He was chemist to the Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun in India and lectured in chemistry at the Presidency College, Madras and at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, which he left in 1928. From 1930 to 1942 he was Professor of Chemistry at University College of North Wales, Bangor. In 1943 he was appointed to the new position of Director of Colonial Products Research, which he held until 1952. From 1945 to 1949 he was simultaneously Secretary of the Chemical Society and a member of the Agricultural Research Council. As a chemist he received many honours, including the Fritzsche Award of the American Chemical Society in 1949 and the Davy Medal of the Royal Society the following year. He was knighted in 1949.

Material is arranged in chronological order and incorporated into the General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts .

Open to all users

Donated by Professor C.J.M. Stirling of the Department of Chemistry, University College of North Wales.

Description compiled by Anne Lenaghan, May 2002.

Item level word-processed list is available at the Archives Department, University of Wales, Bangor. Reference numbers: General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts: 36117 - 36120

Usual copyright conditions apply. Reprographics are made at the discretion of the Archivist.