Jocelyn Field Thorpe

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Jocelyn Field Thorpe
Cooden Beach, East Sussex
NationalityEnglish
Alma materHeidelberg University
Known forThorpe reaction
Thorpe–Ingold effect
Guareschi–Thorpe condensation
AwardsLongstaff Prize (1921)
Davy Medal (1922)
Scientific career
FieldsOrganic chemistry
InstitutionsImperial College London
Doctoral advisorKarl von Auwers
Doctoral studentsChristopher Kelk Ingold

Thorpe-Ingold effect
and three named reactions.

Early life and education

Thorpe was born in Clapham, London on 1 December 1872, one of nine children and the sixth son, of Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Thorpe of the

Owens College, Manchester (this became part of the University of Manchester in 1904), starting as an assistant to W. H. Perkin Jr.
, becoming a lecturer in 1896 and senior lecturer in 1908. In that year he was elected FRS and was awarded a Sorby Fellowship by the Royal Society to study in Sheffield.

Career and research

In 1908 he moved to the

Imperial College, a post he was to hold until 1939. The previous incumbent was Thomas Edward Thorpe - although the two were not related, his father was a close friend of T. E. Thorpe and it was the latter who persuaded him to switch from engineering to chemistry in his undergraduate career. Although Ingold's obituary[1] gives a good account of Thorpe's scientific work it lacks references; Patrick Linstead[3]
does give some references and on that account is the better source for Thorpe's chemical research career.

With

novocaine.[7]

After the war he remained on many committees and was frequently consulted by governmental and industrial bodies. His departmental reorganisations continued, but this postwar period saw much of his best research. With Christopher Kelk Ingold, a demonstrator in the chemistry department from 1920 – 1924, Thorpe worked on ‘valence deflection’ (sometimes called the Thorpe - Ingold effect). This derives from the observation that increasing the size of two of the substituents at a tetrahedrally-bound carbon atom leads to higher intramolecular reaction rates between parts of the other two substituents.[8]

Three organic reactions bear his name. The

2-pyridone.[11][12][9]

Publications

Thorpe wrote many papers, particularly in the Journal of the Chemical Society Transactions; some are cited by Linstead.[3] He also wrote three books, all available in the British Library:

J. C. Cain and J. F. Thorpe, The synthetic dyestuffs and the intermediate products from which they are derived (1905);

C. K. Ingold and J. F. Thorpe, Synthetic colouring matters - vat colours (1923);

J. F. Thorpe and M. Whiteley, A Student’s Manual of Organic Chemical Analyses (1925).

In his later years he was part-editor of several volumes of T. T. Thorpe's Dictionary of Applied Chemistry.

Honours and awards

Thorpe became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1908, was awarded a CBE in 1917, and in the same year became a member of the Officier de la Légion d’honneur. In 1921 he became the vice-president of the Chemical Society and was awarded its Longstaff medal. in 1917. In 1922 he received the Davy Medal of the Royal Society. He became President of the Chemical Society from 1928 - 1931, and was knighted (KBE) in 1939.[13][2][14]

Personality

Kon[13] remembered Thorpe as being jovial and full of ideas, never happier than when working in the laboratory, which he normally did in his shirtsleeves without any protective clothing (as famous picture shows him smoking a cigar – he was fond of cigarettes and cigars) while peering through a test-tube. Kon,[13] Linstead[3] and Armstrong[2] remark on his kindness and humanity to others. He was a cultured man with a keen interest in English china. He was well supported in his career by his wife, née Lilian Briggs, who he married in 1902.

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 178487429
    .
  2. ^
    doi:10.1038/1451001a0
    .
  3. ^
    doi:10.1039/JR9410000444
    .
  4. doi:10.1039/CT9048500128
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-78326-973-0
    .
  6. ^ "Navy lists:Monthly:1939:March:Standing Committees:Chemical Defence Committee". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  7. doi:10.1039/CT9150700934
    .
  8. doi:10.1039/CT9150701080
    .
  9. ^
    doi:10.1039/CT9048501726
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0471264187
    .
  11. ^ Guareschi, I. [in Italian] (1896). "Sintesi di composti piridinici dagli eteri chetonici coll'etre cianacetico in presenza dell'ammoniaca e delle amine" [Synthesis of pyridine compounds from ketone ethers with cyanoacetic ether in the presence of ammonia and amines]. Mem. Reale Accad. Sci. Torino II. 46: 7, 11, 25.
  12. doi:10.1039/CT9201701465
    .
  13. ^
    doi:10.1039/JR9410000444
    .
  14. doi:10.1039/AN9406500483
    .
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