Mason Science College was a university college in Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of Birmingham University. Founded in 1875 by industrialist and philanthropist Sir Josiah Mason, the college was incorporated into the University of Birmingham in 1900. Two students of the college,

Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...

and

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

, later went on to become Prime Ministers of the UK.

History

The college was established by an English industrialist and philanthropist Sir Josiah Mason in 1875. The building of the college in Edmund Street, Birmingham was designed by

Jethro Cossins Jethro Anstice Cossins (7 July 1830 – 1917) was a British architect, who practised mainly in Birmingham during the 19th century. Background He was born on 7 July 1830 in Kingsdon, Somerset, the son of John Cossins. He died on 5 December 1 ...

and opened on 1 October 1880 and was marked by a speech by Thomas Henry Huxley. In the speech, Huxley considered the opening of the college as a victory for scientific cause and supported Mason's antagonistic views on the classics and theology. The college developed various liberal and vocational subjects, but forced out the artisans. The medical and scientific departments of

Queen's College, Birmingham Queen's College was a medical school in central Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of the University of Birmingham. It was founded by surgeon William Sands Cox in 1825 as The Birmingham Medical School, a residential college for medi ...

moved to the nearby Mason Science College. In 1898, it became Mason University College, with Joseph Chamberlain becoming the President of Court of Governors of the college. In 1900 it was incorporated into the University of Birmingham. Students at the College were awarded their degrees by the University of London until the University of Birmingham was established and received degree awarding powers in its own right.

William A. Tilden Sir William Augustus Tilden (15 August 1842 – 11 December 1926) was a British chemist. He discovered that isoprene could be made from turpentine. He was unable to turn this discovery into a way to make commercially viable synthetic rubber. L ...

was professor of chemistry from 1880 to 1894. In September 1893, Francis William Aston began his university studies at the college, where he was taught physics by John Henry Poynting and chemistry by Frankland and Tilden. In 1881, Charles Lapworth became the first professor of geology at the college. In 1891, physics professor John Henry Poynting successfully calculated the mean density of the Earth. The Mason College building housed Birmingham University's Faculties of Arts and Law for over half a century after the founding of the University in 1900. The Faculty of Arts building on the Edgbaston campus was not constructed until 1959–61. The Faculties of Arts and Law then moved to the Edgbaston Campus. After the Second World War, the style of architecture was not as appreciated as it is now. Paul Cadbury referred to it in 1952 as a ''neo-gothic monstrosity'' and expected it to be demolished within 50 years. In the event, it was demolished in 1964, along with the original Central Public Library and the Birmingham and Midland Institute, as part of the redevelopment within the inner ring road. The former Central Library stood on the site of the old college, the library having moved to a new site in 2013; the building was demolished in 2016.

Departments

During the first academic session of the college in 1880 courses in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics were offered to students. By 1881 courses in geology and mineralogy, botany and vegetable physiology, engineering, English language and literature, Greek and Latin, and French and German language and literature were also available. From 1882 Medical students at

were able to attend classes in botany, physiology and chemistry, and in 1892 the medical faculty of Queen's College was transferred to Mason College. There was also a short-lived department of ‘Mental and Moral Science’, which was not successful despite funds being gifted specifically to support the endeavor in 1882.

Academics and alumni

Neville Chamberlain by William Orpen - 1929

Notable academics and alumni of the college include: * Edward Arber, academic and writer * Francis William Aston, chemist and physicist, 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry *

, British Prime Minister * Sir

Gilbert Barling Sir Harry Gilbert Barling, 1st Baronet (30 April 1855 – 27 April 1940) was an English surgeon. Barling was born at Newnham on Severn, Gloucestershire and educated at a boarding school at Weston, near Bath. He went to Birmingham in 1875 at ...

, 1st Baronet, physician *

John Belling John Belling (7 October 1866–28 February 1933) was a cytogeneticist who developed the iron-acetocarmine staining technique which is used in the study of chromosomes. Born in Aldershot in England in 1866, the son of John Belling (1827–1 ...

, cytogeneticist who developed the iron-acetocarmine staining technique which is used in the study of chromosomes * Sir

Nathan Bodington Sir Nathan Bodington (29 May 1848 – 12 May 1911) was the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science18 ...

, Professor of classics *

Adrian John Brown Adrian John Brown, FRS (27 April 1852 – 2 July 1919) was a British Professor of Malting and Brewing at the University of Birmingham and a pioneer in the study of enzyme kinetics. He was born at Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire to Edwin Brown, ...

, FRS, pioneer in the study of enzyme kinetics *

Arthur Henry Reginald Buller Arthur Henry Reginald Buller, (19 August 1874 – 3 July 1944) was a British-Canadian mycologist. He is mainly known as a researcher of fungi and wheat rust. Academic career Born in Moseley, Birmingham, England, he was educated at Queen's C ...

, British-Canadian mycologist mainly known as a researcher of fungi and wheat rust *

, British Prime Minister *

Lawrence Crawford (mathematician) Lawrence Crawford (sometimes written Laurence Crawford) FRSE LLD (1867–1951) was a Scottish-born mathematician. He was a co-founder of the re-established Royal Society of South Africa in 1908 and served as its President from 1936 to 1941. H ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1867–1951), taught in the college * Sir

Guy Dain Sir Harry Guy Dain FRCS (5 November 1870 – 26 February 1966) was a British physician. Between 1887 and 1894 Dain studied science and medicine at Mason College (a predecessor college of the University of Birmingham). He graduated with a Unive ...

, Chairman of the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

1943–49 (M.B. medicine) * Hermann Georg Fiedler, German scholar * Sir Henry Fowler, locomotive engineer *

Percy F. Frankland Percy Faraday Frankland CBE FRS (3 October 1858 – 28 October 1946) was a British chemist. He was the second son and youngest child of Edward Frankland, chemist, and Sophie Fick, sister of Adolf Eugen Fick. He was born at 42 Park Road, Haversto ...

, chemist * Ernest Gold, set up the first operational (military) meteorological service, Deputy Director of the Meteorological Office *

John Berry Haycraft John Berry Haycraft FRSE (bapt. 15 March 1857 – 30 December 1922) was a British physician and professor in physiology who carried out important medical research. Biography Haycraft was born in Lewes, East Sussex, England, in 1857, the son ...

, discovered an

anticoagulant Anticoagulants, commonly known as blood thinners, are chemical substances that prevent or reduce coagulation of blood, prolonging the clotting time. Some of them occur naturally in blood-eating animals such as leeches and mosquitoes, where the ...

created by the

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ...

, which he named hirudin *

John Rippiner Heath John Rippiner Heath (4 January 1887 - 23 December 1950) was a British composer, violinist and physician who lived and worked for most of his life in Wales. Life Heath was born in Birmingham the son of Professor Robert Heath, principal of Birmingham ...

, physician and composer *

Micaiah John Muller Hill Micaiah John Muller Hill FRS (1856–1929) was an English mathematician, known for Hill's spherical vortex and Hill's tetrahedra. He was born on 22 February 1856 in Bengal, India, the son of Revd. Samuel John Hill (1825–1881) and Leonora Jo ...

, FRS, English mathematician, known for Hill's spherical vortex and Hill's tetrahedra *

Charles William Hobley Charles William Hobley, CMG (b. Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, England in 1867; d. Oxted, Surrey on 31 March 1947) — known as C. W. Hobley — was a pioneering British Colonial administrator in Kenya. He served the Colonial Service in Kenya fr ...

, pioneering colonial administrator in Kenya * Frank Horton, Professor of Physics at

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

and Vice-Chancellor of the University of London 1939–45 *

Henry Eliot Howard Henry Eliot Howard (13 November 1873 – 26 December 1940) was an English amateur ornithologist, noted for being one of the first to describe territoriality behaviours in birds in a detailed manner. His ideas on territoriality were influential ...

, ornithologist *

Arthur Lapworth Arthur Lapworth FRS (10 October 1872 – 5 April 1941) was a Scottish chemist. He was born in Galashiels, Scotland, the son of geologist Charles Lapworth, and educated at St Andrew's and King Edward's School, Birmingham. He graduated in chemist ...

, FRS, chemist * Charles Lapworth, FRS, FGS, geologist who pioneered faunal analysis using index fossils and identified the Ordovician period *

Robert Thomson Leiper Robert Thomson Leiper (17 April 1881 – 21 May 1969) FRS CMG was a British parasitologist and helminthologist. Early life and education Leiper was born on 17 April 1881 in Witch Road, Kilmarnock, Scotland; the eldest of three children of John ...

, parasitologist and helminthologist *

Lionel Simeon Marks Lionel Simeon Marks (8 September 1871 – 6 January 1955) was a British engineer and one of the pioneers of aeronautics. He was born and mostly educated in England, but in 1892 moved to the United States. During World War II he was a chief consu ...

, engineer and one of the pioneers of aeronautics *

Gerald Rusgrove Mills Gerald Rusgrove Mills (3 January 1877 – 23 September 1928) was a publisher who, along with Charles Boon, established the publishing company Mills & Boon in 1908. Early life Gerald Rusgrove Mills was born on 3 January 1877 in Stourbridge as the ...

, publisher who established the publishing company Mills & Boon *

John Henry Muirhead John Henry Muirhead (28 April 1855 – 24 May 1940) was a British philosopher best known for having initiated the Muirhead Library of Philosophy in 1890. He became the first person named to the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham ...

, philosopher * Constance Naden, poet and philosopher *

Charles Talbut Onions Charles Talbut Onions (C. T. Onions) (10 September 1873 – 8 January 1965) was an English grammarian and lexicographer and the fourth editor of the ''Oxford English Dictionary''. Life Onions was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, the eldest son o ...

, English grammarian and lexicographer and the fourth editor of the Oxford English Dictionary * Kineton Parkes, novelist and art historian * Sir

Leonard Parsons Sir Leonard Gregory Parsons MRCS FRCP FRCOG FRS (25 November 1879 - 17 December 1950) was a British Paediatrician. Parsons studied at Mason College and the University of Birmingham from 1896 to 1903. He graduated with a University of London ...

, Professor of Paediatrics, dean of Birmingham medical school, in 1932 the first to use synthetic vitamin C to treat scurvy in children * Sir Robert Howson Pickard, chemist who did pioneering work in stereochemistry and was Vice Chancellor of the University of London from 1937–1939 * John Henry Poynting, physicist * Dame

Ethel Shakespear Dame Ethel Mary Reader Shakespear (née Wood; 17 July 1871 – 17 January 1946) was an English geologist, Justice of the Peace, public servant, and philanthropist.Biography, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' She is most famously know ...

, geologist, public servant and philanthropist *

Edward Adolf Sonnenschein Edward Adolf Sonnenschein (20 November 1851 – 2 September 1929, Bath) was an English classical scholar and writer on Latin grammar and verse. Career Sonnenschein was educated at University College School and then in 1868 at University Colle ...

, Classical Scholar and writer on Latin grammar and verse *

F. J. M. Stratton Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick John Marrian Stratton PRAS (16 October 1881 – 2 September 1960) was a British astrophysicist, Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at the University of Cambridge from 1928 to 1947 and a decorated British Army office ...

, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge * Sir

, chemist *

Swale Vincent Prof Thomas Swale Vincent MD FRSE LLD (24 May 1868 – 31 December 1933) was a British physiologist who spent most of his working life in Canada. Early years Thomas Swale Vincent was born in Birmingham on 24 May 1868, the son of Joseph ...

, physiologist *

William Whitehead Watts Prof William Whitehead Watts FRS HFRSE FGS FMS LLD (7 June 1860 – 30 July 1947) was a British geologist. Life He was born near Broseley in Shropshire, the eldest of two sons of Isaac Watts, but then a music master, and his wife, Maria Whitehea ...

, FRS, geologist * Wilmer Cave Wright, philologist and historian of science and medicine * John Howard Whitehouse, Liberal Member of Parliament * Sir Bertram Windle, physician

References

Sources

*Ordnance Survey 1st Edition Map, 1890
Ulrls.lon.ac.uk

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Archive.org

Ulrls.lon.ac.uk

External links

Lists of students at Mason Science College

1960s photograph
{{University of Birmingham University of Birmingham Demolished buildings and structures in the West Midlands (county) Science and technology in the West Midlands (county) Educational institutions established in 1875 1875 establishments in England Buildings and structures demolished in 1964