Sir Edward Charles Dodds, 1st Baronet (13 October 1899 – 16 December 1973) was a British biochemist.

Personal life

He was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in 1899, the only child of Ralph Edward Dodds, a shoe retailer, and Jane (née Pack) Dodds. The family shortly moved to

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, then to

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

and then to Chesham, Bucks, where he attended Harrow County School. From there he entered the

Middlesex Hospital Medical School Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

in London in 1916, spent one year in the army in 1917, and qualified MRCS and LRCP in 1921. He died at Sussex Square in

Paddington, London Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

on 16 December 1973.

Career

In 1924 he was appointed to the new Chair of Biochemistry at the University of London which was started in the Bland Sutton Institute of Pathology at the Middlesex. Three years later, he was appointed Director of the recently completed Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry and retained these two appointments until his retirement forty years later. His scientific interests were wide and varied; he had a continuing interest in the problem of cancer and of research into its causation, and was an authority on food and diet and also devoted time and energy to the problems of rheumatism. He provided facilities and gave advice and encouragement to younger colleagues in such work as immunopathology, steroid chemistry, cytochemistry and the work which led to the discovery of Aldosterone.

Awards and honours

He was appointed a Member (fourth class) of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1929 Birthday Honours. In 1940, Dodds received the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh. The next year, 1941, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh 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 established i ...

. His proposers were

Francis Albert Eley Crew Francis Albert Eley Crew FRS FRSE LLD (2 March 1886 – 26 May 1973) was an English animal geneticist. He was a pioneer in his field leading to the University of Edinburgh’s place as a world leader in the science of animal genetics. He was t ...

, Alan William Greenwood, James Kendall and

Guy Frederic Marrian Frederic Guy Marrian CBE FRS FRSE FIC (3 March 1904 – 24 July 1981) was a British biochemist mainly known for his research into oestregen. Life He was born in London on 3 March 1904 the son of Mary Eddington Currie and Frederic York Marrian, ...

. In 1942 he was elected to

Fellowship of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics ...

and subsequently served as Vice-President. He served the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

for some years as Harveian Librarian and in 1962 was elected President, the first to hold the office who was laboratory based and not engaged in clinical practice. During his term of office as President he was invested as a knight into the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (K.St.J.). He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in 1954, and created 1st Baronet Dodds of

West Chiltington West Chiltington is a village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the Storrington to Broadford Bridge road, 2.6 miles (4.2 km) north of Storrington. The parish covers an area of 1733 hectares ...

in the

County of Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

on 10 February 1964.Sir Edward Charles Dodds, 1st Bt.
Thepeerage.com. Retrieved on 4 June 2014.

Publications

He co-authored a number of books such as ''The Laboratory in Surgical practice'',''Chemical and Physiological Propertes of Medicine'' and ''Recent Advances in British Medicine'' .

Family

In 1923 he had married Constance Elizabeth Jordan (d.1969) of Darlington. They had one son, Sir Ralph Jordan Dodds, who succeeded to the baronetcy on Charles' death in 1973.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodds, Edward Charles 1899 births 1973 deaths Medical doctors from Liverpool Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Members of the Royal Victorian Order British biochemists Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians Knights Bachelor Physicians of the Middlesex Hospital People from West Chiltington