| Authorised form of name | Baker; Herbert Brereton (1862 - 1935); chemist |
| Dates | 1862 - 1935 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Livesey, near Blackburn, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 25 June 1862 |
| Place of death | Latchmoor House, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
|
| Date of death | 27 April 1935 |
| Dates and places | Place of marriage: St Barnabas' Church, Dulwich, London, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Inorganic chemist |
| Research field | Inorganic chemistry |
| Activity | Education:
Blackburn grammar school; Manchester grammar school; Balliol College MA (Oxon)
Career:
Demonstrator in chemistry at Balliol and private assistant to Harold Baily Dixon (1883-1885); chemistry master and head of the science side to Dulwich College (1886); headmaster of Alleyn's School, Dulwich (1902); returned to Oxford as Lee's reader in chemistry at Christ Church (1904); chief professor of chemistry at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington (1912-1932).
Honours:
CBE 1917
Awards/Medals:
Longstaff Medal 1912 (President 1926)
Davy Medal 1923 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 05/06/1902 |
| Age at election | 40 |
| Proposer | Alexander Scott |
| William Palmer Wynne |
| Wyndham Rowland Dunstan |
| William Henry Perkin Jr |
| Harold Baily Dixon |
| William Ramsay |
| William James Russell |
| William Odling |
| William Augustus Tilden |
| Royal Society activity | Medals and prizes:
Davy Medal 1923 |
| Relationships | Parents: Reverend John Baker, Curate in Charge of Livesey, near Blackburn, and Caroline Slater.
Spouse: (m. 21 March 1905) Muriel Powell (d. 15 October 1944), daughter of Harry James Powell, glassmaker
Children: Ronald Powell Brereton (c. 1906) and Audrey Muriel (1908) |
| General context | Distinguished for his researches on the influence of moisture on chemical change. He demonstrated that dry carbon and phosphorus will not inflame when heated in dry oxygen; that dry ammonia and hydrogen chloride when mixed do not unite, and that dry ammonium chloride and calomel respectively vaporise without dissociation.
Shown that dry hydrogen and oxygen mixed together are not ignited by exposure to the temperature of melting silver. These results are of the utmost importance in regard to the theory of chemical action. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Image | 
|
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1932-1935 vol l pp 523-526, plate, by J F Thorpe
References:
Sir Brian Pippard, FRS, 'Schoolmaster-Fellows and the campaign for science education' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 63-81, plate
Edmund J Bowen, 'The Balliol-Trinity Laboratories, Oxford 1853-1940' in NR 1970 vol 25 pp 227-236
Sir Harold Hartley and D C Martin, 'The Royal Society Club Dinner on 14 November 1968 in Celebration of the 90th Birthday of Sir Harold Hartley, FRS' in NR 1969 vol 24 pp 146-155 |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/30277045 |
| Royal Society code | NA8111 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| EC/1902/03 | Baker, Herbert Brereton: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| MC/25/12 | Letter from [Herbert Brereton] Baker, 5 Norham Gardens, Oxford, to [Joseph Larmor], [Royal Society] | 14 June 1910 |
| IM/000197 | Baker, Herbert Brereton | nd |
| NLB/31/874 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Herbert Brereton Baker, Fellow of the Royal Society, 5 Norham Gardens, Oxford | 28 November 1905 |
| NLB/39/146 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to H [Herbert] B [Brereton] Baker, DSc, Fellow of the Royal Society | 2 December 1908 |
| NLB/39/284 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to H [Herbert] B [Brereton] Baker, Fellow of the Royal Society | 21 December 1908 |
| NLB/38/330 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to [Herbert Brereton] Baker, Fellow of the Royal Society | 16 July 1908 |
| NLB/39/145 | Copy letter from Archibald Geikie to Sir James Dewar, Fellow of the Royal Society | 3 December 1908 |
| NLB/41/180 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Herbert Brereton Baker, Fellow of the Royal Society | 28 October 1909 |
| NLB/43/682 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Herbert Brereton Baker, Fellow of the Royal Society | 9 March 1911 |
| NLB/42/90 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Sir Joseph Larmor, Sec RS | 23 March 1910 |
| NLB/42/717 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison [Signed by Theodore E James] to Dr H [Herbert] B [Brereton] Baker FRS | 15 September 1910 |
| NLB/43/666 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Herbert Brereton Baker, Fellow of the Royal Society | 7 March 1911 |
| NLB/52/590 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor Herbert Brereton Baker, FRS | 25 January 1916 |
| RR/20/2 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The thermal effects produced by heating and cooling palladium in hydrogen' by J H Andrew and A Holt | July 1913 |
| RR/17/209 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The decomposition of ozone by heat' by Edgar Philip Perman and Richard Henry Greaves | [January 1908] |
| RR/20/142 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'Borohydrates part II' by Morris William Travers and Ramesh Chandra Ray | May 1913 |
| RR/20/6 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'Studies of the processes operative in solutions. XXV - The influence of non-electrolytes on solubility. The nature of the processes of dissolution and precipitation' by Henry Edward Armstrong and J Vargas Eyre | January 1913 |
| RR/18/171 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'On chemical action induced by cathode rays and canal rays' by Edgar Philip Perman | January 1911 |
| RR/10/240 | Referee's report by Herbert McLeod, on a paper 'Combustion in dried oxygen' by Herbert Brereton Baker | 27 August 1888 |
| RR/41/56 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The oxidation of phosphine' by R H Dalton | March 1930 |
| RR/20/93 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'On the purification of phosphorus pentoxide for use in high vacua' by [John Job] Manley | April 1913 |
| RR/44/107 | Second referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'On the influence of hydrogen on the pyrolysis of ethane and ethylene near 600°.—Part I' by Morris William Travers and L E Hockin | January 1932 |
| IM/000196 | Baker, Herbert Brereton | 1922 |
| RR/44/134 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'A new method for the determination of nitrogen peroxide' by E J B Willey | October 1931 |
| RR/42/11 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'An investigation of the attack of platinum and tungsten by iodine' by Gordon Van Praagh and Eric Keightley Rideal | September 1931 |
| RR/17/275 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The atomic weight of chlorine' by Edward C Edgar | [July 1908] |
| NLB/60/553 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to the Clerk to the Government Body; Dulwich College | 23 February 1921 |
| RR/44/9 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The discontinuous nature of the process of sorption of gases and vapours by porous solids' by Arthur John Allmand and L J Burrage | 21 January 1931 |
| NLB/60/527 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Herbert Brereton] Baker, FRS | 18 February 1921 |
| NLB/65/444 | Copy letter from James Hopwood Jeans, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor Herbert [Brereton] Baker, FRS | 1 November 1923 |
| NLB/65/495 | Copy letter from James Hopwood Jeans, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Dr Alexander Scott, FRS | 8 November 1923 |
| NLB/65/477 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; sent to The Times; The Morning Post; The Daily Telegraph; Nature; the Press Association | 6 November 1923 |
| NLB/69/271 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to the Secretary, Dulwich College | 19 February 1926 |
| NLB/73/84 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Prof. [Herbert Brereton] Baker, C.B.E., FRS | 22 November 1930 |
| NLB/72/718 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Herbert Brereton] Baker, FRS | 19 March 1930 |
| MS/427/435 | Note of a letter from [George Gabriel] Stokes, Secretary of the Royal Society; to the Secretary of the Treasury | 25 June 1885 |
| NLB/65/437 | Copy letter from William Bate Hardy, Secretary of the Royal Society; to the Deputy Master of the Mint | 1 November 1923 |
| NLB/65/823 | Copy letter from James Hopwood Jeans, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Lord Rayleigh [Robert John Strutt], FRS | 11 January 1924 |
| RR/16/269 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The combination of hydrogen & oxygen in contact with hot surfaces' by Dr William Arthur Bone and R V Wheeler | November 1905 |
| RR/21/151 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on two papers 'Borohydrates.—Part II' and 'Borohydrates.—Part III' by Morris William Travers and others | [June 1914] |
| RR/28/63 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The behaviour of gases in contact with glass surfaces' by D H Bangham and F P Burt | 9 December 1923 |
| RR/21/110 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The silver voltameter. Part III. The solvent properties of silver nitrate solutions' by Thomas Martin Lowry | [August 1914] |
| NLB/65/766 | Copy letter from James Hopwood Jeans, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Lord Rayleigh [Robert John Strutt], FRS | 21 December 1923 |
| RR/44/106 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'On the influence of hydrogen on the pyrolysis of ethane and ethylene near 600°.—Part I' by Morris William Travers and L E Hockin | June 1931 |
| RR/18/189 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The comparative and total chemical action of X and B-rays' by F L Usher | March 1911 |
| RR/45/4 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'Reactions between carbon and certain gases' by W E J Broom and Morris William Travers | [September 1931] |
| RR/45/5 | Second referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'Reactions between carbon and certain gases' by W E J Broom and Morris William Travers | nd [January 1932] |
| RR/19/33 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'On the variation of the resistance of Selenium with the voltage' by E E Fournier d'Albe | [January 1912] |
| RR/21/53 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The production of neon and helium by the electrical discharge' by John Norman Collie, Hubert Sutton Patterson and Irvine Masson | [August 1914] |
| RR/37/24 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'Further experiments on the combustion of well-dried carbon monoxide and oxygen mixtures. —Part III' by William Arthur Bone, Frank R Weston and Dennis A Winter | December 1928 |
| RR/40/77 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The density and compressibility of phosphine gas; the atomic weight of phosphorus' by Mowbray Ritchie | March 1930 |
| RR/43/29 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The electrical condition of hot surfaces during the adsorption of gases. Part IV.—carbon and copper surfaces at temperatures up to 850° C' by George Ingle Finch and J C Stimson | March 1931 |
| RR/43/111 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'The effect of foreign gases on the lower critical oxidation limit of phosphorus vapour' by Harry Work Melville and E B Ludlam | March 1931 |
| RR/44/47 | Referee's report by Herbert Brereton Baker, on a paper 'Photographic investigation of flame movements in gaseous explosions. Parts IV, V and VI' by William Arthur Bone and Reginald P Fraser | August 1931 |
| MC/26/12 | Letter from [Herbert] Brereton Baker, The Museum House, Oxford, to Mr [Robert] Harrison, the [Royal Society] | 20 November 1911 |
| MC/35 | Volume 35 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1921 |
| MC/35/7 | Letter from [Herbert Brereton] Baker, Latchmoor House, Gerrard's Cross, Bucks, to the Royal Society | 21 February 1921 |
| ACS/1/2/3/126 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to Professor [Herbert Brereton] Baker, C. B. E, F. R. S., Imperial College, S. W. 7 | 17 February 1928 |