Letter from Richard Threlfall, 30 George Road, Birmingham, to [Joseph] Larmor Threlfall is unsurprised about the difficulty of recruiting a professor of chemistry, but emphasises that he cannot be of much assistance, as he has not followed the work of laboratory organic chemists for some time. The gentleman named by Larmor from Threlfall's part of the world is autocratic and egotistical, he thinks. He questions whether Larmor's approach is the right one, thinking that only an eminently great chemist would be able to establish the school in a way such as J.J. Thomson did in his area in 1885. Threlfall does not know [William Jackson] Pope personally and cannot pass an opinion on his work compared to [Henry John Horstman] Fenton's; but both are good and Fenton has originality. He apologises for writing so much and saying so little. 22 July 1908