Frank Stuart Spring (5 September 1907 – 1 March 1997) was a British organic chemist.

Life

He was born in

Great Crosby Great Crosby is an area of the town of Crosby, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England and is historically, part of Lancashire. Location In 1907, the Victoria County History described Great Crosby's location thus: 'The a ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

on 5 September 1907, the fifth of six children of John Spring. He was educated at Waterloo Grammar School in

. His father, a master mariner, was killed with his crew of 20 when his ship the ''Rhineland'' hit a German mine in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. He received a grant from the Merchant Navy Trust to go to university and studied Chemistry at

Liverpool University The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University, it received Royal Charter by King Edward VII in 1903 attaining the de ...

graduating BSc in 1928. Continuing as a postgraduate he gained a doctorate (PhD) in 1930. In 1930 he began as an assistant lecturer in Chemistry at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

rising to be Senior Lecturer by 1946. In 1946 he moved to the Royal College of Science and Technology in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

as Professor of Chemistry. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

in 1952 and a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1958. His proposers for the latter were

James Pickering Kendall James Pickering Kendall FRS FRSE (30 July 1889, in Chobham, Surrey – 14 June 1978, in Edinburgh) was a British chemist. Life Kendall was born in Chobham, Surrey to soldier William Henry Kendall of the Royal Horse Artillery, and his second wi ...

, Neil Campbell, Mowbray Ritchie, Thomas Robert Bolam, and Sir

Edmund Hirst Sir Edmund Langley Hirst CBE FRS FRSE (21 July 1898 – 29 October 1975), was a British chemist. Life Hirst was born in Preston, Lancashire, on 21 July 1898, the son of Elizabeth (née Langley) and Rev Sim Hirst (1856-1923), a Baptist ministe ...

. In 1959, he left academia to become Director of Laporte Industries based in

Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...

. He retired in 1971 and died on 1 March 1997, aged 89.

Family

In 1932, he married Mary Mackintosh, of

Heswall Heswall () is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was historically part of Cheshire and became part of Merseyside in 1974. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 202 ...

. They had a son, John, and daughter, Vivien.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring, Frank Stuart 1907 births 1997 deaths Alumni of the University of Liverpool Academics of the University of Manchester Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh British chemists Fellows of the Chemical Society