Chem Phys Soc 1946-47

President: C R Bailey

Secretary: Alan Rimmer

Presidential Lecture: "Oh my God! Oh Montreal!" (see Bailey's biog for an explanation)

Alan Rimmer (46-49) remembers that this was the year that Robert Robinson was invited to speak at the one of the evening lectures. The story behind the invitation is quite interesting. Relations between Ingold and Robinson had been frosty for some years and Ingold was famous for the way he would speak of Robinson's work without mentioning his name. So Robinson was an unlikely guest in the Department. Geoff Smith, an undergraduate in the Department and friend of Rimmer's was the son of two former Robinson students. He persuaded Rimmer to invite the great man. Although Robinson had accepted the invitation (or perhaps his secretary had for him), he was clearly somewhat uneasy about accepting and took a long time before finally providing a title. In the event, Robinson gave an excellent talk on natural products synthesis with Ingold in the audience. But Robinson did not join the dinner afterwards and hurried back to Oxford.