Editing King's College London (section)

=== 20th century ===
{{See also|Rosalind Franklin#King's College London{{!}}Contribution of King's College London to the discovery of the structure of DNA|Photo 51}}
[[File:King's College London Students Evacuated To Bristol, England, 1940 D432.jpg|thumb|Evacuated King's College London students at the [[University of Bristol]] during the Second World War]]

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = King's College London Act 1903
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to amend King's College London Act 1882.
| year                  = 1903
| citation              = [[3 Edw. 7]]. c. xcii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 21 July 1903
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = King's College London Act 1978
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = repealed
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Edw7/3/92/pdfs/ukla_19030092_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = King's College London (Transfer) Act 1908
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = 
| year                  = 1908
| citation              = [[8 Edw. 7]]. c. xxxix
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 1 August 1908
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Edw7/8/39/pdfs/ukla_19080039_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
The '''{{visible anchor|King's College London Act 1903}}''' ([[3 Edw. 7]]. c. xcii) abolished all remaining religious tests for staff, except within the Theological department. In 1910, King's was (with the exception of the Theological department) merged into the University of London under the '''{{visible anchor|King's College London (Transfer) Act 1908}}''' ([[8 Edw. 7]]. c. xxxix), losing its legal independence.<ref name="UoL Hist Rec">{{cite book |title=University of London, the Historical Record: (1836–1912) |publisher=University of London |date=1912 |pages=7–24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vyPiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA7}}</ref>

During the First World War, the medical school was opened to women for the first time.<ref name="HIST" /> From 1916 to 1921, the college's Department of Italian was headed by a woman, [[Linetta de Castelvecchio Richardson|Linetta de Castelvecchio]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McNair |first1=Philip |title=Linetta de Castelvecchio Richardson |journal=Italian Studies |date=January 1977 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=1–3 |doi=10.1179/its.1977.32.1.1 |publisher=The Society for Italian Studies}}</ref> The end of the war saw an influx of students, which strained existing facilities to the point where some classes were held in the Principal's house.<ref name="HIST" />

In World War II, the buildings of King's College London were used by the [[Auxiliary Fire Service]] with a number of King's staff, mainly those then known as college servants, serving as [[fire lookouts|firewatchers]]. Parts of the Strand building, the [[quadrangle (architecture)|quadrangle]], and the roof of [[apse]] and stained glass windows of the chapel suffered bomb damage in [[the Blitz]].<ref>Heulin (1979), p. 2</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/campuses/strand/QuadbriefCA07nocompdetails.pdf |title=The Strand Quadrangle Architectural Competition Preliminary briefing paper |publisher=King's College London |access-date=4 March 2013 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035906/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/campuses/strand/QuadbriefCA07nocompdetails.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the post-war reconstruction, the vaults beneath the quadrangle were replaced by a two-storey laboratory, which opened in 1952, for the departments of Physics and Civil and Electrical Engineering.<ref name="HIST" />

One of the most famous pieces of scientific research performed at King's were the crucial contributions to the discovery of the [[double helix]] structure of [[DNA]] in 1953 by [[Maurice Wilkins]] and [[Rosalind Franklin]], together with [[Ray Gosling|Raymond Gosling]], [[Alex Stokes]], [[Herbert Wilson]], and other colleagues at the [[Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics]] at King's.<ref>Maddox (2002), p. 124</ref><ref name="Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin">{{cite web |url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/history/famouspeople/wilkinsfranklin.aspx |title=Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin |publisher=King's College London |access-date=21 January 2013}}</ref><ref name="King's, DNA & the continuing story">{{cite web |url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/biohealth/research/divisions/randall/about/history/dna.aspx |title=King's, DNA & the continuing story |publisher=King's College London |access-date=21 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709055223/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/biohealth/research/divisions/randall/about/history/dna.aspx |archive-date=9 July 2012 }}</ref>

Major reconstruction of King's began in 1966 following the publication of the [[Robbins Report]] on Higher Education. A new block facing the Strand designed by E. D. Jefferiss Mathews was opened in 1972.<ref name="Hibbert" /> In 1980 King's regained its legal independence under a new Royal Charter. In 1993 King's, along with other large University of London colleges, gained direct access to government funding (which had previously been through the university) and the right to confer University of London degrees itself. This contributed to King's and the other large colleges being regarded as ''de facto'' universities in their own right.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Guardian |title=College vote brings break-up of university a step nearer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/dec/10/highereducation.administration |quote="Over the past 10 years the university has become an increasingly loose federation of independent institutions that are universities in their own right and receive their grants directly from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, although they still hand out degrees on behalf of the central university." |date=10 December 2005 |first1=Rebecca|last1= Smithers |first2=Donald |last2=MacLeod}}</ref>

King's College London underwent several mergers with other institutions in the late 20th century. These including the reincorporation in 1983 of the King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry, which had become independent of King's College Hospital at the foundation of the [[National Health Service (England)|National Health Service]] in 1948, mergers with
[[Queen Elizabeth College]] and [[Chelsea College of Science and Technology|Chelsea College]] in 1985, and the [[Institute of Psychiatry]] in 1997. In 1998 the [[United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals]] merged with King's to form the [[GKT School of Medical Education]].<ref name="Hibbert" /><ref name="historyandtoday" /><ref name="Dates">{{cite web |url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/history/dates.aspx |title=Dates: 1900–1949 |access-date=21 January 2013 |publisher=King's College London}}</ref><ref name="kingsdental" /> Also in 1998 [[Florence Nightingale]]'s original training school for nurses merged with the King's Department of Nursing Studies as the [[Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery]]. The same year King's acquired the former [[Public Record Office]] building on [[Chancery Lane]] and converted it at a cost of £35&nbsp;million into the [[Maughan Library]], which opened in 2002.<ref name="Hibbert" />