The Actonian Prize was established by the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

as a septennial award for the "person who in the judgement of the committee of managers for the time being of the Institution, should have been the author of the best essay illustrative of the wisdom and beneficence of the Almighty, in such department of science as the committee of managers should, in their discretion, have selected". Each year the prize was to be awarded, announcements were published, and competitors for the prize were requested to send their essays to the Secretary of Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, London, and adjudication was made by the managers and announced a few months later. The prize was named for Hannah Acton who in 1838 left £1,000 to the Royal Institution in memory of her husband, the architect

Samuel Acton Samuel Acton (c. 1773 – January 1837), was an English architect, surveyor and artist. Life Acton was the nephew and pupil of Nathaniel Wright, a London carpenter and surveyor. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1790, and studied there fo ...

, the income from which was to be spent for prizes for the best essay on the beneficence of the Almighty, as illustrative of a department of science.Benjamin Vincent, ''

Haydn's Dictionary of Dates Joseph Timothy Haydn ( Lisbon, Portugal, 1788 - London, 17 January 1856), journalist and compiler of dictionaries, was well known as the author of the "Dictionary of Dates", 1841 (19th edition, 1889), and of the "Book of Dignities", 1851 (3rd rev ...

,'' 23rd ed. 1904, p. 1073 The Royal Institution's Actonian Prize is now given to an invited lecturer and is not competitive. The first prize of one hundred

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from t ...

was awarded to

George Fownes George Fownes, FRS (14 May 1815 in London – 31 January 1849) was a British chemist. He attended the Palace School in Enfield. He obtained his PhD at Giessen, in Germany. From 1842 he was chemistry professor at the Pharmaceutical Society of Gr ...

for his ''Chemistry as Exemplifies the Wisdom and Beneficence of God'' published in 1844. At the time, he was the chemical lecturer at Middlesex Hospital. Other recipients include: *1851

Thomas Wharton Jones Thomas Wharton Jones (9 January 1808 – 7 November 1891) was an eminent ophthalmologist and physiologist of the 19th century. Biography Jones's father was Richard Jones, a native of London. Richard Jones had moved north to St. Andrews and wa ...

, ''With the Wisdom and Beneficence of The Almighty as displayed in The Sense of Vision.'' *1858 No prize was awarded. The announced subject had been on solar radiation. The managers of the Royal Institution reported that no essay of sufficient merit had been received, and the money was carried forward for a future award, under the terms of the trust-deed. *1865 G. Warington, ''The Phenomena of Radiation as Exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence of God.'' *1872 Two awards were made of one hundred guineas each (£105) for winning essays on the subject "The Theory of the Evolution of Living Things." One went to Rev. George Henslow who published his essay the following year under the same title. The other was given to Benjamin Thompson Lowne, who the next year published ''The Philosophy of Evolution.'' *1879 R.S. Boulger for his essay on the "Structure and Functions of the Retina in all Classes of Animals, viewed in relation to the Theory of Evolution." *1886 Sir

George Gabriel Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet, (; 13 August 1819 – 1 February 1903) was an Irish migration to Great Britain, Irish English physicist and mathematician. Born in County Sligo, Ireland, Stokes spent all of his career at the University ...

, president of the Royal Society *1893 Agnes Mary Clerke *1900 Sir

William Huggins Sir William Huggins (7 February 1824 – 12 May 1910) was an English astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astronomical spectroscopy together with his wife, Margaret. Biography William Huggins was born at Cornhill, Middlesex, in ...

and Lady Huggins: ''Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra'' (1900). *1907

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

for her essay "Recherches sur les Substances Radioactives." *1921

George Ellery Hale George Ellery Hale (June 29, 1868 – February 21, 1938) was an American solar astronomer, best known for his discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots, and as the leader or key figure in the planning or construction of several world-lea ...

in recognition of his work on solar phenomena *1928 Archibald Vivian Hill *1935 William T. Astbury of the Department of Textile Physics, University of Leeds *1949

Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of w ...

, the prize was still 100 guineas *1977

Ralph Louis Wain Ralph Louis Wain CBE FRS (29 May 1911 Hyde, Cheshire – 14 December 2000 Canterbury) was a British agricultural chemist. He read Chemistry at the University of Sheffield on scholarship, and with first class honours degree, and a Master of Scie ...

"Professor R. L. Wain"
''The Independent'', Frank Taylor, 10 January 2001

References

1844 establishments in the United Kingdom Awards of the Royal Institution

Related links

References