Kenneth Macomb Chance (1879–1969) was an English industrialist and founder of British Industrial Plastics, who served as Sheriff of Warwickshire. Chance was born on 16 July 1879, at

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

, Birmingham (then in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

), the son of Alexander Macomb Chance and Florence Mercer. Chance's fraternal grandmother was Cornelia de Peyster, whose ancestors were

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

and

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

settlers in

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...

and Loyalist to the Crown. He was educated at Bilton Grange School, Warwickshire,

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school whi ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. While at Cambridge, he played cricket for Trinity College's Second XI He served as director (from 1901), managing director (from 1906), and chairman (from 1933) of British Cyanides, and was MD & Chairman of its sister company British Industrial Plastics Ltd. He wrote a history of British Cyanides. In 1944, he gave the

Society Of Chemical Industry The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) is a learned society set up in 1881 "to further the application of chemistry and related sciences for the public benefit". Offices The society's headquarters is in Belgrave Square, London. There are semi-in ...

's first ''Chance Memorial Lecture'', on the subject of his father. He was

Sheriff of Warwickshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of the English county of Warwickshire. The High Sheriff, Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the c ...

in 1948–1949. At that time, his address was listed as Radford Manor, at

Radford Semele Radford Semele is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, situated close to the Regency spa town of Leamington Spa. According to the 2001 Census, Radford Semele parish has a population of 2,448, according to 2021 census. It lie ...

, near Leamington Spa. Chance was also a keen egg-collector, forming between 1925 and 1938 a complete collection of Warwickshire birds' eggs which is now in the possession of his grandson. He died on 9 January 1966. Kenneth Chance's younger brother was the industrialist and ornithologist Edgar Percival Chance.

References

External links

Entry at ''The Peerage''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chance, Kenneth Macomb 1879 births 1966 deaths Place of death missing People from Edgbaston Sheriffs of Warwickshire People educated at Repton School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at Bilton Grange English industrialists English company founders English people of Dutch descent Schuyler family Egg collectors