Arthur Smithells
Arthur Smithells, CMG FRS was a British chemist. Born in Bury, Lancashire, on 24 May 1860. His father James Smithells, was a railway manager. He was educated at University of Glasgow, then spent time under Roscoe and Schorlemmer at Owens College, Manchester. He gained his B.Sc. from the University of London, then took supplemental courses at Munich and, with Robert Bunsen, at Heidelberg University. In 1883 he was appointed assistant lecturer at Owens College, and two years later succeeded Professor Sir Edward Thorpe as Professor of Chemistry in Yorkshire College, Leeds, which was subsequently incorporated as the University of Leeds. Smithells went on to hold the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Leeds, which he held until he retired from the Chair then becoming Emeritus Professor in 1923.
During his career he was Honorary Educational Adviser on Home Science and Household Economics to King's College London, President of the Society of British Gas Industries.
During the First World War he was an adviser to the Northern Command, becoming Lieutenant-Colonel-Chief Chemical Adviser ,for which in 1918 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.
In 1923 he became Director of the Salters’ Institute of Industrial Chemistry a role that involved assessing applications for grants, he remained a director until 1937.
His research was predominantly focused on flames, the process of burning and flame spectroscopy
As well as being a Fellow of the Royal Society becoming vice-president in 1916, he was also a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry serving on the Council and holding the posts of Vice-president from 1915-1917, 1923-1926 and 1930-1933 and President, and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Analytical Chemistry. His son, Philip Ashton Smithells, was a physical educationalist and university professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand.
