Mason Science College was a university college in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and a predecessor college of

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

. Founded in 1875 by industrialist and philanthropist Sir

Josiah Mason Sir Josiah Mason (23 February 1795 – 16 June 1881) was an English industrialist, engaged in pen manufacture and other trades, and a philanthropist. He founded Mason Science College in 1875, which later became the University of Birmingham. Bi ...

, the college was incorporated into the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

in 1900. Two students of the college, Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, later went on to become Prime Ministers of the UK.

History

The college was established by an English industrialist and philanthropist Sir

in 1875. The building of the college in

Edmund Street __notoc__ Edmund Street is a street located in Birmingham, England. Edmund Street is one of a series of roads on the old Colmore Estate which originally stretched from Temple Row in the city centre, around St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, St ...

, Birmingham was designed by Jethro Cossins and opened on 1 October 1880 and was marked by a speech by Thomas Henry Huxley. In the speech, Huxley considered the opening of the college as a victory for scientific cause and supported Mason's antagonistic views on the classics and theology. The college developed various liberal and vocational subjects, but forced out the artisans. The medical and scientific departments of Queen's College, Birmingham moved to the nearby Mason Science College. In 1898, it became Mason University College, with

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the C ...

becoming the President of Court of Governors of the college. In 1900 it was incorporated into the

. Students at the College were awarded their degrees by the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

until the University of Birmingham was established and received degree awarding powers in its own right. William A. Tilden was professor of chemistry from 1880 to 1894. In September 1893,

Francis William Aston Francis William Aston FRS (1 September 1877 – 20 November 1945) was a British chemist and physicist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes in many non-radioactive elements a ...

began his university studies at the college, where he was taught physics by John Henry Poynting and chemistry by Frankland and Tilden. In 1881,

Charles Lapworth Charles Lapworth FRS FGS (20 September 1842 – 13 March 1920) was a headteacher and an English geologist who pioneered faunal analysis using index fossils and identified the Ordovician period. Biography Charles Lapworth was born at Faring ...

became the first professor of geology at the college. In 1891, physics professor John Henry Poynting successfully calculated the mean density of the Earth. The Mason College building housed

's Faculties of Arts and Law for over half a century after the founding of the University in 1900. The Faculty of Arts building on the Edgbaston campus was not constructed until 1959–61. The Faculties of Arts and Law then moved to the Edgbaston Campus. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the style of architecture was not as appreciated as it is now. Paul Cadbury referred to it in 1952 as a ''neo-gothic monstrosity'' and expected it to be demolished within 50 years. In the event, it was demolished in 1964, along with the original Central Public Library and the Birmingham and Midland Institute, as part of the redevelopment within the inner ring road. The former Central Library stood on the site of the old college, the library having moved to a new site in 2013; the building was demolished in 2016.

Departments

During the first academic session of the college in 1880 courses in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics were offered to students. By 1881 courses in geology and mineralogy, botany and vegetable physiology, engineering, English language and literature, Greek and Latin, and French and German language and literature were also available. From 1882 Medical students at Queen's College, Birmingham were able to attend classes in botany, physiology and chemistry, and in 1892 the medical faculty of Queen's College was transferred to Mason College. There was also a short-lived department of ‘Mental and Moral Science’, which was not successful despite funds being gifted specifically to support the endeavor in 1882.

Academics and alumni

Neville Chamberlain by William Orpen - 1929

Notable academics and alumni of the college include: *

Edward Arber Edward Arber (4 December 183623 November 1912) was an English scholar, writer, and editor. Background and professional work Arber was born in London. From 1854 he 1878 he worked as a clerk in the Admiralty, and began evening classes at King ...

, academic and writer *

, chemist and physicist, 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry * Stanley Baldwin,

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...

* Sir Gilbert Barling, 1st Baronet, physician * John Belling, cytogeneticist who developed the iron-acetocarmine staining technique which is used in the study of chromosomes * Sir Nathan Bodington, Professor of classics * Adrian John Brown, FRS, pioneer in the study of enzyme kinetics * Arthur Henry Reginald Buller, British-Canadian mycologist mainly known as a researcher of fungi and wheat rust * Neville Chamberlain,

* Lawrence Crawford (mathematician) FRSE (1867–1951), taught in the college * Sir Guy Dain, Chairman of the British Medical Association 1943–49 (M.B. medicine) *

Hermann Georg Fiedler Hermann Georg Fiedler (28 April 1862 – 10 April 1945) was a German scholar, who became Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford (1907–37). He was previously lecturer in German at Mason College (whi ...

, German scholar *

Sir Henry Fowler Sir Henry Fowler, (29 July 1870 – 16 October 1938) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Midland Railway and subsequently the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Biography Fowler was born in Evesham, ...

, locomotive engineer * Percy F. Frankland, chemist * Ernest Gold, set up the first operational (military) meteorological service, Deputy Director of the Meteorological Office * John Berry Haycraft, discovered an anticoagulant created by the leech, which he named hirudin * John Rippiner Heath, physician and composer * Micaiah John Muller Hill, FRS, English mathematician, known for Hill's spherical vortex and Hill's tetrahedra * Charles William Hobley, pioneering colonial administrator in Kenya * Frank Horton, Professor of Physics at Royal Holloway College and Vice-Chancellor of the

1939–45 * Henry Eliot Howard, ornithologist * Arthur Lapworth, FRS, chemist *

, FRS, FGS, geologist who pioneered faunal analysis using index fossils and identified the Ordovician period * Robert Thomson Leiper,

parasitologist Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it ...

and

helminthologist Helminthology is the study of parasitic worms (helminths). The field studies the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of helminths and their effects on their host (biology), hosts. The origin of the first compound of the word is the Greek ''wikt:ἕλ� ...

* Lionel Simeon Marks, engineer and one of the pioneers of aeronautics * Gerald Rusgrove Mills, publisher who established the publishing company Mills & Boon * John Henry Muirhead, philosopher * Constance Naden, poet and philosopher * Charles Talbut Onions, English grammarian and lexicographer and the fourth editor of the Oxford English Dictionary *

Kineton Parkes William Kineton Parkes (1865–1938) was an English novelist, art historian and librarian, known best for his publication concerning sculpture and his 1914 modernist novel ''Hardware: A Novel in Four Books''. Parkes was born in Aston, Birmingham ...

, novelist and art historian * Sir Leonard Parsons, Professor of Paediatrics, dean of Birmingham medical school, in 1932 the first to use synthetic vitamin C to treat scurvy in children * Sir

Robert Howson Pickard Sir Robert Howson Pickard FRS (27 September 1874 – 18 October 1949) was a chemist who did pioneering work in stereochemistry and also for the cotton industry in Lancashire. He was also involved in educational administration and was Vice Chancello ...

, chemist who did pioneering work in stereochemistry and was Vice Chancellor of the University of London from 1937–1939 * John Henry Poynting, physicist * Dame Ethel Shakespear, geologist, public servant and philanthropist * Edward Adolf Sonnenschein, Classical Scholar and writer on Latin grammar and verse * F. J. M. Stratton, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge * Sir William A. Tilden, chemist * Swale Vincent, physiologist * William Whitehead Watts, FRS, geologist *

Wilmer Cave Wright Emily Wilmer Cave Wright (, France; January 21, 1868 – November 16, 1951) was a British-born American classical philologist, and a contributor to the culture and history of medicine. She was a professor at Bryn Mawr College, where she taught Gree ...

, philologist and historian of science and medicine * John Howard Whitehouse, Liberal Member of Parliament * Sir

Bertram Windle Sir Bertram Coghill Alan Windle, (8 May 1858 – 14 February 1929) was a British anatomist, administrator, archaeologist, scientist, educationalist and writer. Biography He was born at Mayfield Vicarage, in Staffordshire, where his father, ...

, physician

References

Sources

*Ordnance Survey 1st Edition Map, 1890
Ulrls.lon.ac.uk

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Ulrls.lon.ac.uk

Ulrls.lon.ac.uk

Ulrls.lon.ac.uk

Ulrls.lon.ac.uk

Archive.org

Ulrls.lon.ac.uk

External links

Lists of students at Mason Science College

1960s photograph
{{University of Birmingham University of Birmingham Demolished buildings and structures in the West Midlands (county) Science and technology in the West Midlands (county) Educational institutions established in 1875 1875 establishments in England Buildings and structures demolished in 1964