Church, Arthur Herbert

Title

Prof, Sir

First name(s)

Arthur Herbert

Surname

Church

Position(s) held at King's College London

Lecturer in Food and Diet to the King's College Ladies' Department, Easter Term, 1889.

Education & professional details

School, college and/or university attended ^Ref: *1

Kings College School, 1847; Lincoln College, Oxford; Royal College of Chemistry, London.

Qualifications ^Ref: *1

BA 1860, MA 1863 Lincoln College, Oxford; 1st Class Natural Science, Royal College of Chemistry, London

Position(s) held (non King's College London) ^Ref: *1

• Professor of Chemistry, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester 1863-1869
• Professor of Chemistry, Royal Academy Schools, 1879-1911
• Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, Cooper's Hill College, 1888

Professional activities

Fellow of King's College, London; Vice-President of the Mineralogical Society 1897-1898; President (ditto) 1898-1901; Fellow of the Chemical Society (which amalgamated with other societies in 1980 to become the Royal Society of Chemistry).

Publications

• English porcelain: a handbook to the china made in England during the eighteenth century as illustrated by specimens chiefly in the national collections (1885)
• Food-grains of India (1886
• Food : some account of its sources, constituents and uses (1887)
• Laboratory Guide for Agricultural Students (1888)
• The chemistry of paints and painting (1890)
• Colour: an elementary manual for students (1907)

For further works, see obituary.

Personal details

Date of birth

2nd June 1834

Place of birth ^Ref: *2

London

Date of death

31st May 1915

Place of death

Shelsley, Kew Gardens

Obituary ^{Refs: *1 *2 *3}

• (small article) Staffordshire Sentinel 5 June 1915, Page 7
• Sir Arthur Herbet Church (1834-1915) was born, the fourth son of a solicitor, in London, on June 2, 1834, and educated at King's College, London, the Royal College of Chemistry, and Lincoln College, Oxford. He was Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester (1863-79), lecturer in organic chemistry at Cooper's Hill College (1888-1900), and Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Academy of.4rts, London (1879-1911). He was the author of several handbooks, some of which were " prepared in connexion with the collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum. These dealt with a variety of subjects, and passed through many editions: 'Laboratory Guide for Agricultural Students' (1864, 9th edit. 1912), 'Precious Stones' (1882, several editions and reprints to 1913), ' English Earthenware' (1884), 'English l~orcelain ' (1885), 'Food Grains of India' (1886), 'Chemistry of Paints and Painting' (1890, 4th edit. 1915), and several other works. His scientific papers were also considerable in number and covered a wide range of subjects: the Royal Society Catalogue quotes 137 titles up f~) the year 1900. Several of them dealt with mineralogy, more especially with the anMysis of Cornish minerals. He described as new species: bayldonite, botallackite, namaqualite, pelagite, restormelite, tallingite, tasmanite, and woodwardite; and also the rare hydrous cerium phosphate which bears his name churchite. 364 OBIT~'& ~S. Some of his papers appeared in the pages of this Magazine. He was an original (1876) member of this Society and a past President (1898-- 1901). He was elected a fellow of the Chemical Society as long ago as 1853, and of the Royal Society in 1888, and was created K.C.V.O. in 1909. He was D.Sc. of Oxford, and a fellow of King's College, London. Sir Arthur Church had a private laboratory at his home at Kew Gardens, and he was an enthusiastic collector of objects of art of various kinds. He bequeathed his chemical and mineralogical apparatus and mineral specimens, together with a sum of.s for the purchase of apparatus and specimens, to the Mineralogical Department at Oxford. His valuable collection of faceted gem-stones has, in accordance with a wish expressed in his will, been presented by his widow to the trustees of the British Museum, and is now on exhibition in the recent addition case in the mineral ga!lery of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. This collection comprises about. 200 choice and selected stones, most of them being mounted in gold rings. The sixty-nine examples of zircon display a wide range in colour and include two stones of a bright sky-blue. Of his many-sided activities mention should also be made of the assistance he gave in the preservation of the mural paintings and stonework of the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. He died on May 31, 1915. CAR

Family details ^Ref: *2

Son of John Thomas Church, Solicitor, and  Maria Susanna Booty; married Jemima Louisa Pope in April 1879

Notes ^{Refs: *1 *2 *3}

• AHC was an expert on pottery and stones, and discovered the red pigment turacin in 1869 and several minerals, including the only British cerium mineral. He was a talented painter who became an expert of chemistry of paintings and frescoes. The New York Times called him a " famous chemist" and " a leading authority in the chemistry of painting."
• He was made FRS in 1888, and awarded the King's College London VO in 1909.