Charles Thomas Heycock FRS (21 August 1858 – 3 June 1931) was a British

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

and soldier who was awarded the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). H ...

in 1920.

Biography

Charles Thomas Heycock, the youngest of ten children of Frederick Heycock and Mary (née Heywood), was born on 21 August 1858 in

Bourn Bourn is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England. Surrounding villages include Caxton, Eltisley and Cambourne. It is 8 miles (12 km) from the county town of Cambridge. The population of the parish was 1,015 peo ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

. He was educated at Bedford School,

Oakham Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...

, and went up to

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

in 1877; he gained the

Natural Sciences Tripos The Natural Sciences Tripos (NST) is the framework within which most of the science at the University of Cambridge is taught. The tripos includes a wide range of Natural Sciences from physics, astronomy, and geoscience, to chemistry and biology, ...

in 1880. After teaching for the Cambridge examinations, he was elected to a Fellowship at King’s College in 1895, and became a College Lecturer and Natural Sciences Tutor in the following year. Heywood was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1895 and awarded the

in 1920, "on the ground of his work in physical chemistry and more especially on the composition & constitution of alloys". His original work on the metals inspired the

Goldsmiths Company The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commonly known as the Goldsmiths' Company and formally titled The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London, is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of Londo ...

to endow a Readership in Metallurgy at Cambridge, to which Heywood was appointed in 1908. He was admitted to the Livery of the Company in 1909 and to the Court in 1913. Heycock and his lifelong friend Francis Henry Neville, FRS published many papers on alloys. The two collaborators also worked on copper-tin and gold-aluminium alloys. Heycock was

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

in command of the 3rd (Cambridgeshire) Volunteer battalion, the Suffolk Regiment, with the honorary rank of

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

, until he resigned in August 1902. Satoyasu Iimori, was a Japanese chemist from RIKEN who learned under Heycock in 1919 - 1920.

Family

Heycock married Caroline Elizabeth Rosa Sadler on 28 August 1883 at St Mary the Virgin,

Purton Purton is a large village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about northwest of the centre of Swindon. The parish includes the village of Purton Stoke and the hamlets of Bentham, Hayes Knoll, Purton Common, Restrop, The Fox and Widham. Th ...

. They had a son and two daughters. Charles Heycock died on 3 June 1931, and was buried on the 6th at

Grantchester Grantchester is a village and civil parish on the River Cam or Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about south of Cambridge. Name The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Grantesete'' and ''Graunts ...

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heycock, Charles Thomas 1858 births 1931 deaths 19th-century British chemists 20th-century British chemists Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at Bedford School Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of King's College, Cambridge