Alice Emily Smith

Alice Emily Smith (18 June 1871 – 1924) was a British chemist and one of the nineteen signatories of the 1904 petition to the Chemical Society.[1]

Alice Emily Smith
Born18 June 1871
Died1924 (1925) (aged 53)
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of North Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd
Known forSignatory of the 1904 petition to the Chemical Society.
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
InstitutionsUniversity College of North Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd Owens College, Manchester

Early life and education

Smith was born 18 June 1871, the daughter of Thomas Smith, Commission Agent from County Down, Northern Ireland.[2]

She was educated at Crescent House school in Bedford.[2] She matriculated at the University College of North Wales in 1897 and graduated with a B.Sc. (London) in 1901[2] before taking up work as a demonstrator there.

Smith was awarded an 1851 exhibition scholarship[3][2] and chose to use it to conduct research at Owens College, Manchester from 1901 to 1903.[1] Whilst at Owens College, she worked with both William Henry Perkin Jr. and K. J. P. Orton.[4]

Smith's research with Perkins resulted in four important research papers being published on structure determinations and new synthetic routes in organic chemistry between 1902 and 1904.[4][5]

Career

In 1903, Smith returned to the University College of North Wales as an Assistant Lecturer in Organic Chemistry[1] and Assistant Lecturer in Education.[2] During this period, Smith was one of only five women chemists to receive Chemical Society Research Fund grants between 1902 and 1910.[4]

While working at Bangor, she collaborated with Head of Chemistry, Professor Kennedy J.P. Orton, on a study of reaction mechanisms from 1905 to 1908 which resulted in the publishing of five research papers.[1][2] Orton was a strong supporter of the rights of women chemists so may have made Smith aware of the 1904 petition to the Chemical Society.[1]

The 1904 petition to the Chemical Society

In 1904, Smith, along with eighteen other British women chemists, signed a petition setting out their reasons to the Chemical Society why they should be afforded Fellowship status like their male counterparts. The petition eventually led to the admission of women as Fellows of the Society[6] (one of the Societies that amalgamated to become the Royal Society of Chemistry), as well as identifying prominent female chemists working in Britain at this time.

Later life

In 1914, Smith gave up her position at University College and took up a new role as lecturer in Science at the Maria Grey Training College in London, the first teachers' training college for women.[2] In 1917, she left the college to become a research chemist at Cooper's Laboratory. In 1920, she returned to teaching, becoming head of Heathfield Boarding School for Girls,[7] a private school at Ilkley, West Yorkshire.[8]: 256  She ran the school with Margaret Raad until they dissolved their business partnership on 25 July 1923.[9] On Christmas Day 1923,[10] Smith was declared bankrupt with estimated debts of nearly £4,700 (equivalent to £285,000 in 2021).[11] She died in the following year.[12]

References
  1. Rayner-Canham, Geoff (2003). "Pounding on the Doors: The Fight for Acceptance of British Women Chemists" (PDF). Bull. Hist. Chem. 28 (2): 110–119.
  2. Rayner-Canham, Marelene F.; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey (2008). Chemistry was Their Life: Pioneering British Women Chemists, 1880-1949. World Scientific. ISBN 9781860949869.
  3. Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415920407.
  4. Creese, Mary R. S. (1991). "British Women of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Who Contributed to Research in the Chemical Sciences". The British Journal for the History of Science. 24 (3): 275–305. doi:10.1017/s0007087400027370. JSTOR 4027231. PMID 11622943.
  5. Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy (2003-12-16). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge. ISBN 9781135963422.
  6. Mason, Joan (1991). "A forty years' war". Chemistry in Britain: 233–238.
  7. "Heathfield Boarding School for Girls". The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. Leeds. 7 July 1923. p. 1. ISSN 0963-1496. OCLC 18793101. Retrieved 6 January 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. Rayner-Canham, Marelene F; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey William (2020). "7. Universities in Scotland and Wales". Pioneering British Women Chemists: Their Lives and Contributions (2nd ed.). London: World Scientific Publishing Europe. pp. 217–258. ISBN 978-1-78634-770-1. OCLC 1124793258. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  9. "The Companies Acts, 1908 to 1917". No. 32857. The London Gazette. 28 August 1923. pp. 5870–5871. OCLC 1013393168. 063. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  10. "The Bankruptcy Act, 1914. From The London Gazette. Receiving Orders". No. 13982. The Edinburgh Gazette. 25 December 1923. p. 1755. OCLC 1179455103. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  11. "Miss Alice Emily Smith, of Heathfield, Ilkley". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 6 February 1924. p. 6. OCLC 17991386. Retrieved 24 August 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. "Part I. List of Science Research Scholars Appointed Between the Years 1891 and 1921". Record of the Science Research Scholars of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 (1891–1960) (5th ed.). London: Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. 1961. p. 28. OCLC 38642733. SB/10/55. Retrieved 6 January 2023 – via Wellcome Collection. In the Sydney Brenner collection.
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