| Authorised form of name | Lapworth; Arthur (1872 - 1941); chemist |
| Dates | 1872 - 1941 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Galashiels, Selkirkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 10 October 1872 |
| Place of death | Sandown Nursing Home, 55 Palatine Road, Withington, Manchester, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 05 April 1941 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Place of marriage: Bridgwater, Somerset, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Chemist |
| Research field | Physical chemistry |
| Organic chemistry |
| Microscopy |
| Ornithology |
| Inorganic chemistry |
| Chemistry |
| Activity | Education:
St Andrews; King Edward VI's School, Birmingham; Mason College, Birmingham 1823; City and Guilds Central Technical College; DSc (Lond) 1895
Career:
Lecturer in chemistry at the School of Pharmacy, Bloomsbury; head of the chemistry department, Goldsmiths' Company's institute, New Cross (1900); senior lecturer in inorganic and physical chemistry, University of Manchester (1909); professor of organic chemistry (1913); Sir Samuel Hall professor of inorganic and physical chemistry and director of the laboratories (1922); emeritus professor at Manchester (1935). |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 05/05/1910 |
| Age at election | 38 |
| Proposer | Henry Woodward |
| Harold Baily Dixon |
| William Arthur Bone |
| Horace Tabberer Brown |
| William Palmer Wynne |
| Henry John Horstman Fenton |
| Martin Onslow Forster |
| William Ramsay |
| Raphael Meldola |
| William Augustus Tilden |
| William Henry Perkin |
| Henry Edward Armstrong |
| RSActivity | Council 1927–9
Medals and prizes:
Davy Medal 1931 |
| Relationships | Parents: Charles Lapworth (1842-1920) (FRS 1888), professor of geology, University of Birmingham, and his Janet Sanderson, daughter of Walter Sanderson of Galashiels.
Spouse: (m.1900) Kathleen Florence, youngest daughter of William Thomas Holland JP.
Brother-in-law: 1) Frederic Stanley Kipping (FRS 1897); 2) William Henry Perkin (FRS 1890); they married three sisters. |
| OtherInfo | Distinguished on account of the breadth and exactness of his knowledge of organic chemistry, and of his skill and assiduity as a practical worker.
Pioneer of the field of physical organic chemistry.
Studied the mechanisms and kinetics of organic reactions.
He was an uthority on British mosses and was interested in ornithology.
Played a variety of instruments including the violin, cello, and viola. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Image | 
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| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB (MP); DSB
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1945-1948 vol 5 pp 555-572, plate, by R Robinson
References:
Arthur J Birch, 'Investigating a Scientific Legend: the Tropinone Synthesis of Sir Robert Robinson, FRS' in NR 1993 vol 47 pp 277-296
W A Waters, 'Some Comments on the Development of Free Radical Chemistry' in NR 1984-85 vol 39 pp 105-124 |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/52471342 |
| Code | NA6165 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1910/12 | Lapworth, Arthur: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/002631 | Lapworth, Arthur | nd |
| NLB/42/377 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Messrs Harrison & Sons | 1 June 1910 |
| NLB/42/429 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Dr A [Arthur] Lapworth FRS | 13 June 1910 |
| NLB/42/403 | Copy letter from Theodore E James to Messrs Harrison & Sons | 6 June 1910 |
| RR/21/123 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'Attempts to produce the rare gases by electric discharge' by Thomas Ralph Merton | 6 June 1914 |
| NLB/55/471 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Arthur] Lapworth, FRS | 17 April 1918 |
| RR/38/108 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'The mechanism of chemical change. I.—Promotion and arrest of the mutarotation of tetra-acetylglucose in ethyl acetate' by Thomas Martin Lowry and G Glyn Owen | May 1928 |
| RR/43/78 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'The conductivity of electrolytes in acetone' by N L Ross Kane and Harold Hartley | August 1931 |
| RR/35/8 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'The photosynthesis of naturally occurring compounds.—III. Photosynthesis in vivo and in vitro' by Edward Charles Cyril Baly and J B Davies | May 1927 |
| RR/32/48 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'Immobile groups of atoms with strong specific external fields as the cause of catalytic activity' by F H Constable | 26 September 1925 |
| NLB/68/768 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Arthur] Lapworth, FRS | 30 October 1925 |
| NLB/42/433 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to J [Joseph] Barcroft, FRS [Fellow of the Royal Society] | 13 June 1910 |
| RR/21/32 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'An approximate estimate of the constituents of water' by William Robert Bousfield | [November 1914] |
| RR/35/13 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'The photosynthesis of naturally occurring compounds. I.—The action of ultra-violet light on carbonic acid' by Edward Charles Cyril Baly, J B Davies and H Shanassy | May 1927 |
| AP/79/16/1 | Unpublished manuscript, 'The conductivity of potassium chloride solution' by Edgar Newbery | 1918 |
| AP/79/16 | Unpublished paper, 'The conductivity of potassium chloride solution' by Edgar Newbery | 1918 |
| RR/21/8 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'Morphological studies of benzene derivatives.—VII. The correlation of the forms of crystals with their molecular structure and orientation in a magnetic field in the case of hydrated sulphonates of dyad metals' by Henry Edward Armstrong and E H Rodd | [June 1914] |
| RR/21/12 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'Morphological studies of benzene derivatives. V.—The correlation of crystalline form with molecular structure: a verification of the Barlow-Pope conception of "valency-volume."' by Henry Edward Armstrong, R T Colgate and E H Rodd | 16 February 1914 |
| RR/35/11 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'The photosynthesis of naturally occurring compounds.—II. The photosynthesis of carbohydrates from carbonic acid by means of visible light' by Edward Charles Cyril Baly, W E Stephen and N R Hood | May 1927 |
| RR/39/48 | Referee's report by Arthur Lapworth, on a paper 'A study of the catalysis by silver of the union of hydrogen and oxygen' by David Leonard Chapman and W K Hall | [May 1929] |