Editing Robert Whytlaw-Gray

{{Short description|English chemist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
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| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1958|01|29|1877|06|14}}
| death_place       = [[Welwyn Garden City]], England
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*[[University College London]]
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*[[University of Leeds]]}}
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'''Robert H. Whytlaw-Gray''', [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]], [[Royal Society|FRS]]<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Cox | first1 = E. G. | last2 = Hume | first2 = J. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1958.0025 | title = Robert Whytlaw-Gray 1877-1958 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 4 | pages = 327–339 | year = 1958 | s2cid = 73066148 }}</ref> (14 June 1877 – 29 January 1958) was an English chemist, born in London. He studied at the [[University of Glasgow]] and [[University College London]] and was [[Professor]] of [[Inorganic Chemistry]] at the [[University of Leeds]].  He and [[William Ramsay]] isolated [[radon]] and studied its physical properties (density, weight).<ref name=ucl>{{Cite web |title =History - People - R W Gray | publisher =UCL | url =http://www.chem.ucl.ac.uk/resources/history/people/gray.html |access-date =2009-10-31 }}[]</ref>

==Early life and education==
Robert Whytlaw-Gray (also Robert Whytlaw Whytlaw-Gray)<ref>In his marriage certificate, the citation for his OBE, and in the probate register after his death he is shown as Robert Whytlaw Whytlaw-Gray. The register for his birth, however, names him as Robert Whytlaw-Gray)</ref> was born in [[Hampstead]] on 14 June 1877, son of Robert James Gray and Mary Gilkieson Gemmell Whytlaw.

His early education was at [[St Paul's School, London|St Paul’s School]], where little science was taught. When he was about 12, Whytlaw-Gray set up a laboratory at home and taught himself chemistry. At eighteen he went to the [[University of Glasgow]] to study engineering and it was there that he heard a lecture by [[William Ramsay]]<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/769519 Robert Whytlaw-Gray, E G Cox and J Hume, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol 4 (Nov 1958), pp 326-339]</ref> which so inspired him that he determined to go to [[University College London]] (UCL), to study under him.  This he did, from 1896, so successfully that he won the Tufnell Scholarship in chemistry in 1898. The prize is awarded to “the best graduate, under the age of 24, progressing to the Research School”<ref>{{cite web|title=Departmental Prizes and Scholarships|website=UCL: Chemistry|url=http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/chemistry/undergraduate/accordion-questions/dept-prizes|access-date=25 June 2020}}</ref> which presumably means Whytlaw-Gray gained a first degree, although there is no formal record of this.  In 1903 he joined [[Richard Anschütz|Anschütz’s]] lab at the [[University of Bonn]], where he worked on the atomic weight of nitrogen and where he was awarded a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in 1906.

==Academic career==
On his return to UCL Whytlaw-Gray was appointed to Ramsay’s staff, and made Assistant Professor in 1908. He worked on the physical properties of [[radon]],<ref>{{cite journal |title=Some Physical Properties of Radium Emanation |author=R. W. Gray |author2=W. Ramsay |journal=[[J. Chem. Soc. Trans.]] |volume=1909 |pages=1073–1085 |date=1909|doi=10.1039/CT9099501073 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1529110 }}</ref> resigning his post in 1914.

The following year he started as a temporary science master at [[Eton College|Eton]]. Later Whytlaw-Gray was appointed a civilian chemical adviser to the Chemical Warfare Committee. He started work on aerosols and toxic smokes, assisted by J B Speakman.<ref>{{cite journal|title=News and Views: Dr J B Speakman|journal=Nature|volume=144|issue=3635|pages=15–16|date=1 July 1939|doi=10.1038/144015d0|s2cid=4010782|doi-access=free}}</ref> These researches were of great practical value in the [[World War I|war]] effort, and continued for many years.

In 1923 he was appointed [[Professor]] of [[Inorganic Chemistry]] and Head of the Chemistry Department at the [[University of Leeds]] in succession to [[Arthur Smithells]].  He stayed at Leeds for 22 years.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Chemistry at Leeds: Retirement of Prof W R [''sic''] Whytlaw-Gray, OBE, FRS|journal=Nature|volume=156|page=386|date=29 September 1945|issue=3961 |doi=10.1038/156386a0|s2cid=4098806|doi-access=free|bibcode=1945Natur.156Q.386. }}</ref> The University conferred on him the title of [[Emeritus]] Professor on his retirement and, in 1950, the degree of [[Doctor of Science|DSc]] [[honoris causa]].

==Honours==
Whytlaw-Gray was awarded the [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] in 1920.<ref>{{cite journal|title=To be Officers of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order|journal=Supplement to the London Gazette|page=3788|date=30 March 1920}}</ref> He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] (FRS) in 1928.<ref name=frs/>

==Personal life==
Whytlaw-Gray married Doris Fortescue Carr at [[St Stephen Walbrook]] on 22 July 1911. They had two daughters, Philippa Mary (born 1915) and Alianore Doris (born 1916).

==Death==
Whytlaw-Gray died on 21 January 1958, aged 80<ref>The National Probate Calendar entry has the wrong date of death: 21 January 19'''59'''</ref> at The Cottage Hospital, [[Welwyn Garden City]]. His wife died in 1961.

==References==
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[[Category:1877 births]]
[[Category:1958 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from London]]
[[Category:People educated at St Paul's School, London]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:University of Bonn alumni]]
[[Category:Academics of University College London]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Leeds]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:20th-century English people]]
[[Category:20th-century English chemists]]
[[Category:Radon]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]