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Professor Revd. Alfred Caldecott was born in Chester on 9 November 1850. His father, John Caldecott was a hatter and founder of the Institute of Accountants. Caldecott was his sixth child by his first wife Mary Dinah (née Brookes). His older brother Randolph was an English artist and illustrator. In 1860 the family moved to Boughton, Cheshire and he spent the last five years of his schooling at The King Henry VIII School in Chester. He then attended St. John’s College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1876. He read the Moral Sciences Tripos and he took First Class honours in 1880. He was then elected to a Fellowship at St John's. He was one of the founders of the Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club and the first meeting took place on 19 October 1878 in his rooms at St John's.
Caldecott joined King's College London in 1891 as Professor of Logic, Mental and Moral Philosophy. He developed a syllabus with a renewed emphasis on theological issues. He was a lecturer of Logic, Ethics and Psychology to the King’s College London Ladies Department. He became the Boyle Lecturer in 1913 and was Dean of King's College from 1913–17.
In his religious life Caldecott took Holy Orders and became the curate of Stafford from 1880-82, then he was Vicar of Horningsea, Cambridgeshire from 1883-84. He was the Select Preacher at Cambridge University for many individual years between 1884 and 1916. He was the Rector of North and South Topham in Norfolk from 1895-1898 and then the Rector of Frating with Thorington in Essex from 1898-1906. He became Prebendary of St Paul's from 1915 to 1935 and the Rector of Great Oakley in Essex from 1917-1925.
Caldecott was a regular contributor to 'Cambridge Theological Essays' and to the 'University of London Theological Essays'. He wrote several books on philosophical, historical and religious subjects including: 'English Colonialism and the Empire' (1891), ‘The Church in the West Indies’ (1898) and 'The Philosophy of Religion in England and America' (1901). He contributed a paper in 1908 to the Pan-Anglican Congress on Christian Philosophy in contrast with Pantheism, Christian Science, and Agnosticism. He also collaborated with his brother Randolph on the book 'Aesop's Fables' (1883) which contained his translation of Aesop from the original Greek.
In 1910 he made up a deputation with Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Louisa Garrett Anderson who were allowed to put forward the case, for women to have the vote, to the Prime Minister.
He died on 8 February 1936, aged 85, in Upton-upon-Severn in Worcestershire. A portrait of Alfred painted by his brother Randolph Caldecott hangs in the Liverpool Academy of Arts.

The London firm of Clayton and Bell were one of the most successful and prestigious stained glass window makers of the Victorian era.
The company was founded in 1856 by John Richard Clayton (1827-1913), and Alfred Bell (1832-95). John Clayton was a London illustrator and friends with several Pre-Raphaelite artists, most notably Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Alfred Bell, by contrast, was born in Devon, the son of a farm worker. The architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) saw some of Bell's drawings in the 1840s and was so impressed that he hired him and trained him in the Gothic Revival style. John Clayton trained as a sculptor under the architect Sir Charles Barry.
Bell initially formed a partnership with Nathaniel Lavers before joining forces with John Clayton and starting a new company in 1855. Sir George Gilbert Scott gave them several commissions and they were very successful very quickly. The mid-Victorian period saw a revitalisation of the Church of England. After centuries of decay, many medieval churches were restored and rebuilt, and there was a growing market for high-quality stained glass windows.
Clayton and Bell initially shared premises with Heaton & Butler. They produced the designs and Heaton & Butler supplied the kiln and the knowledge and expertise to manufacture the glass. Just three years later, in 1861, Clayton and Bell moved into large new premises on Regent Street, where they began to produce their own glass for their own designs. The company's growth was staggering; by the time they moved into their Regent Street premises Clayton and Bell were employing 300 workmen. Clayton and Bell's commercial success was due to the high demand for stained-glass windows at the time, their use of the best-quality glass available, the excellence of their designs and their employment of efficient factory methods of production. Within a few years, the firm had become one of the most prolific and proficient workshops of English stained glass. By the 1860’s and 1870’s night shifts were worked in order to fulfil the large number of commissions. Clayton and Bell then expanded from designing and making stained glass windows and began designing church murals and entire decorative schemes.
Alfred Bell and John Clayton retired from active participation in company affairs by the 1880s. The company was run by a succession of Bell's heirs; John Clement Bell (1860–1944) was succeeded by Reginald Otto Bell (1884–1950) and then by Michael Farrar-Bell (1911–1993). Unfortunately, the records of Clayton & Bell were largely lost after enemy bombing in World War II. However, their windows can be found throughout the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Among their major commissions, and perhaps the first entire cycle of glass produced in the Victorian era, is the cycle of great scholars produced for the Great Hall of the University of Sydney, designed by the colonial architect Edmund Blacket and based upon Westminster Hall in London. Among their other famous windows are the West Window of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 1878, a very sensitive commission as much ancient glass still existed in the building, and also in Cambridge, a Last Judgement for St. John's College Chapel.
At Truro they were commissioned by John Loughborough Pearson to design windows for the new Cathedral. This work is thought to be amongst the finest Victorian stained glass in England. It tells the story of the Christian Church, starting with the birth of Jesus and finishing with the building of Truro Cathedral. The firm was also commissioned to design mosaics for the new Catholic Cathedral in Westminster, London. The altarpiece for the Chapel of Saints Augustine and Gregory, representing the conversion of England to Christianity is the work of Clayton and Bell, assembled by the Salviati firm from Murano, Italy.
Probably the most significant commission was to design the mosaics for each side and beneath the canopy of the Albert Memorial. This towering monument set on the edge of Hyde Park in London was built to commemorate Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who died in 1861. The firm of Salviati from Murano, Venice, had manufactured the mosaics to Clayton and Bell's designs. The firm of Clayton and Bell was awarded a Royal Warrant by the Queen in 1883.
The company moved from London to Buckinghamshire after WWII and ceased operating after Farrar-Bell's death in 1993.

Sir John Douglas Cockcroft was a physicist and engineer. He was born on 27 May 1897 in Langfield, Yorkshire, to John Arthur Cockcroft and Annie Maude Fielden.
Cockcroft was educated at Todmorden secondary school from 1909 and he went with a scholarship to the University of Manchester in 1914 to study mathematics. He volunteered for war service in 1915 and spent three years as a signaller in the Royal Field Artillery. He returned to Manchester in 1919 to the College of Technology, where he gained a first-class BScTechn. in 1920. He was then accepted as a college apprentice in engineering by the Metropolitan-Vickers Company. He then won a scholarship at St John's College to read mathematics.
In 1925 Cockcroft married (Eunice) Elizabeth Crabtree whom he had known since childhood. Their first child, a boy, died at two years. Subsequently they had four daughters and then a son.
Cockcroft was recommended to Edward Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, and he was accepted as a research student supported by a foundation scholarship from St John's College, a state scholarship, and a further grant from Vickers. He gained his PhD in 1928. At Rutherford’s request, Cockcroft joined up with E.T.S. Watson. In April 1932 their proton beam was directed on to a lithium target and bright scintillations were observed. They were shown to be due to helium atoms. By developing a high voltage high energy beam, the atom had been disintegrated, transformed, and the whole scientific world realized that a new era of nuclear physics had arrived.
Outside of his laboratory work, in 1933 Cockcroft had been appointed junior bursar of St John's College responsible for the buildings, some of which had been neglected for years. The gatehouse of the college was partly taken down to replace roof damage and destruction by death-watch beetles; two new courts were built and rewiring done. In 1935 Cockcroft took over direction of the Mond Laboratory; a new wing of the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1936 Cockcroft was elected FRS, and in 1939 he was elected to the Jacksonian professorship in natural philosophy just as he was becoming increasingly involved with efforts being made in technical fields to prepare for war with Hitler's Germany.
Sir H. T. Tizard spoke confidentially to Cockcroft early in 1938 about RDF, the highly secret radio technique for finding aircraft. Cockcroft played a major role in persuading about eighty physicists to spend a month at various coastal radar defence stations, and he also persuaded a number of leading physicists to participate in the RDF project. Some of these scientists made major advances in radar and Cockcroft's part was one of his greatest contributions to the war effort.
Cockcroft became chief superintendent of the Air Defence Research and Development Establishment at Christchurch in late 1940. Radar was then being applied to direct anti-aircraft gunnery upon unseen targets. Coastal defence radar and radar for combat use by the army to detect moving vehicles and tanks in the darkness were other major projects he undertook.
Cockcroft was assigned to Canada in 1944 to take charge of the Montreal laboratory, and then to build the NRX heavy water reactor at Chalk River. His calm but energetic direction gave the laboratory a firm sense of purpose. The nuclear explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war to an abrupt end, but the nuclear work continued. The Canadians wanted Cockcroft to stay but he was wanted at home to direct the new establishment which was being built at Harwell for atomic energy research. Cockcroft commuted for a while and did both jobs but he then moved full-time to Harwell in 1946.
Cockcroft's name and the excitement of atomic energy attracted many able people of all ages to work at Harwell. Work on pressurized gas-cooled reactors made it possible in 1953 to base the production of additional plutonium on dual-purpose reactors to be built at Calder Hall. The justification was primarily military, but for the first time the vision of cheap nuclear power began to have a practical endorsement. The government decided in 1954 to take the responsibility for atomic energy from the Ministry of Supply and create the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA). Cockcroft became the first member for research, while also remaining director of Harwell.
In December 1954 a technical conference was held under the auspices of the United Nations on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. An advisory committee from seven countries was formed and Cockcroft was chosen as the British representative. This conference, held at Geneva in August 1955, was a political event of outstanding importance which might have heralded the end of the cold war. Scientists from the communist countries fraternized so easily with those from the west, that, just as they shared science, they thought there must be a way to share political philosophies. Scientifically it was an enormous success. Cockcroft was able to invite I. Kurchatov, of the USSR, to give a lecture at Harwell on a subject (fusion research) which only a few months earlier was regarded as extremely secret.
Cockcroft gathered much of the British work on fusion research at Harwell and the major project was the torroidal discharge machine called ZETA which was a major step forward in fusion research. Cockcroft was able to give a great deal of help and encouragement to the Medical Research Council in their work on radiological protection. His influence led to the creation of the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory. He was also closely concerned with the early years of CERN.
Cockcroft resigned as a full-time member of the AEA in 1959 but remained a part-time member and moved to Cambridge to become the first master of the new Churchill College, having been nominated by Sir Winston Churchill himself. Cambridge had accepted the offer of finance for a college which would have nearly as many advanced scientists and fellows as undergraduates, all living in college. Churchill was gratified that this college would bear his name, and Cockcroft was about the most famous scientist or engineer in Britain at that time.
Alongside his duties as Master of Churchill College, Cockcroft represented Britain in the conference which in due course led to the signing of the test ban treaty relating to atomic weapons. He supported the Pugwash conferences on science and world affairs, and was their president in 1967.
Cockcroft received many honorary degrees, awards, and honours, the three principal being the Order of Merit (1957), the Nobel prize for physics, jointly with E. T. S. Walton (1951), and the atoms for peace award (1961). He was appointed CBE in 1944, knight bachelor in 1948, and KCB in 1953. Cockcroft wrote few scientific papers, but from 1935 devoted his outstanding ability to organizing and administering research in science and technology. Cockcroft died on 18 September 1967 at Churchill College. On 17 October a service of memorial and thanksgiving was held in Westminster Abbey.

Henry Dawes Bonsey was born the third son of William Henry Bonsey, of Slough, Buckinghamshire. He earned his BA from St John’s College, Cambridge in 1874. He was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1872, and called to the bar in 1875. He was a reporter for the Law Times, Queen’s Bench Division, and also stood as Recorder of Bedford from 1910-1912, and Judge of County Court No. 2 from 1911.

Bonsey married his wife, Helen Jane, in 1898. He died in Newcaste-upon-Tyne on the 12th of May 1919, aged 68.

Katherine Brandon was born in 1519, the only child of William Willoughby, eleventh Baron Willoughby de Eresby, and his wife Lady Maria de Salinas, a Castlian noblewoman who was maid of honour to Catherine of Aragon. After he father’s death, she became the ward of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

The Duke was married to Mary, sister of Henry VIII, and their son together was created earl of Lincoln in 1525 as well as being a potential heir to the throne. The acquisition of Katherine’s lands would help Brandon to develop his growing sphere of influence, and he married Katherine three months after Mary’s death in 1533.

Katherine was known as a pious woman. After her husband’s death in 1545, she became associated with the circle of Queen Catherine Parr. Once Edward VI ascended the throne, Katherine became involved in shaping a new protestant culture in England. Many books were dedicated to her, including biblical translations, and she also printed her own: The Lamentacion of a Sinner, in 1547. The hope was that the book would help to lift restrictions on Bible reading by women and the lower classes.

After the coronation of Queen Mary, Katherine and her servants travelled to the continent. Their exile lasted until 1559, and its story was incorporated into John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments as well as becoming the subject of a popular ballad. Katherine had a strained relationship with Elizabeth I, due to the puritan tone of her faith which contrasted with the Queen’s.

Katherine had four children: two sons with her first husband, who both died of sweating sickness in 1551, and two children with her second, Richard Bertie. She died on the 19th of September 1580, two years before Bertie.

Of Crook, County Durham. Brother of Thomas Baker. Pensioner at St John's. Died August 1699.

Rector of North and South Lopham, Norfolk (1822-1861), and of North Wingfield, Derbyshire (1861-1878)

B.A. 1872

B.A. 1871. Physician and surgeon

Third son of William Billingsley (d. 1553), haberdasher, and his wife, Elizabeth Hardy (or Harlow). Matriculated pensioner at St John's College in 1550; scholar, 1551. Billingsley did not take his degree, and was apprenticed to a haberdasher in London and rose to serve four terms as Master of the Haberdashers' Company. He was alderman of two London wards, was senior alderman in 1596, and elected Lord Mayor of London in December 1596. He was knighted in 1597. Billingsley translated works including Euclid's Elements of Geometry (1570). A 'Mathematical preface' was contributed to this by John Dee, in which he classified and described the mathematical arts, and corrected the translation of passages which Billingsley had failed to understand. Billingsley married first, Elizabeth Bourne (1541/2-1577), with whom he had five children; secondly, Bridget (d. 1588), daughter of Sir Christopher Draper and widow (husband's name not known); thirdly, Kathleen Killigrew, widow of [first name unknown] Trappe; fourthly (in 1598) Elizabeth (d. 1605/6), daughter of Richard Peacocke of Finchley and widow of Rowland Martyn; fifthly, Susan Tracey (d. 1633), widow of [first name unknown] Barger. As well as leaving money to St John's to found scholarships he left money to Emmanuel College to buy land.

Sister of John Hay Beith, alias the writer Ian Hay (B.A. 1898).

Son of Richard Cave of Stanford, Northamptonshire and his second wife Margaret, daughter of John Saxby of Northampton. Spent five years from late 1524 to 1529 in convent of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in Europe, being made a Knight of the Order in 1525. From 1529 was commander of the Order in Yeaveley and Barrow in Derbyshire. He was summoned back to Malta in 1535, but only got as far as Vienne before being sent back to England by the new Grand Master for an urgent meeting with Henry VIII. Cave's hopes of transferring to the more prestigious commandery of Shingay in Cambridgeshire were disappointed when the English Grand Prior's nephew was elected instead. The order was dissolved in 1540 and Cave committed to Protestantism. He was given a pension and the use of a house in London, became a servant to the King, focussed on his family's wool business, and when former religious were permitted to marry, married a wealthy widow, Margaret Holte, née Willington. He was MP for Leicestershire during Edward VI's reign and lived quietly under Mary I, serving as MP for Warwickshire in her last parliament and in 1553 becoming manager of one of her sister Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I)'s estates. He was immediately appointed to Elizabeth's Privy Council and made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was MP for Warwickshire in 1559 and 1563, visited the north in 1561 to report on problems there, and served on numerous commissions including those to enforce the Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy.
Cave had one child, Margaret, who in 1565 married Sir Henry Knollys at a ceremony attended by the Queen. His extended family at the Savoy included his nieces, whose fathers, Cave's brothers, had died, and the children of other deceased relatives whose wardships he had acquired. His wife probably died in 1561. He died on 2 April 1568 and his funeral service was conducted at the Savoy Chapel, although he was buried at Stanford.

Philip Malcolm Shaw was born in Huddersfield in 1921. He was educated at Royds Hall and Manchester Grammar Schools, before coming up to Cambridge in 1939 as a member of St John’s College. He completed his B.A. in Natural Sciences in 1942, and would go on to pursue postgraduate study at University College London after the Second World War. However, immediately after his graduation he worked in the chemical industry at Grangemouth for the duration of the war. Shaw continued in his career as a chemical engineer, becoming managing director and then director of various companies, until his retirement. He then moved to the Lake District.

Shaw died in 2003.

Son of Richard Cecil of Stamford, Lincolnshire, and Jane Heckington of Bourne, Lincolnshire. Richard Cecil's father, David Cecil, was from a minor gentry family on the Welsh border and joined Henry Tudor's army, becoming one of his bodyguards and serjeant-at-arms. He moved to Stamford because a relative and patron, David Philips, lived there. Philips was a servant of Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII's mother and founder through her will of St John's College. David Cecil and his son Richard were both active in local affairs and held positions of authority, advancing their social standing. Richard Cecil became Lord Burghley through his wife. His son William succeeded as Lord Burghley on his father's death in 1533. William Cecil was educated at Stamford and Grantham Schools before matriculating at St John's in 1535, where he studied for six years although he did not take his degree.
He married Mary Cheke in 1541, sister of John Cheke, a fellow of St John's. They had one son, Thomas Cecil, before Mary died in February 1544. Cecil married Mildred Cooke in Dec. 1545. Mildred was one of the four daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, governor to Prince Edward (later Edward VI).
Cecil trained as a lawyer, entering Gray's Inn in 1541. He entered royal service when his father obtained for him the office of chief clerk of the court of common pleas, and thereafter advanced rapidly. He was knighted in 1551. A convinced Protestant, he retired from office during Mary I's reign but remained in the country and on good terms with the government. Cecil sat in Parliament in the reigns of all three of Henry VIII's children.
He entered the service of the Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I) when she appointed him her surveyor in 1550. He had links to her circle through men such as Roger Ascham, her tutor and a fellow of St John's (both he and John Cheke were renowned Greek scholars). He built up a close relationship with Elizabeth and on her accession she appointed him Secretary of State. One of his most significant early successes was in persuading the Queen to give assistance to Scottish Protestant lords who asked for England's aid to remove the French army that had gathered in Scotland at the invitation of Mary, Queen of Scots and consort of Francis II of France (d Dec. 1560) while she declared her claim to the English throne. Elizabeth did not want to spend the money, engage in warfare, or to be seen to be aiding rebels against an anointed monarch, whereas Cecil saw not just the immediate threat but the long-term benefit of having a Protestant regime as neighbour, which he hoped would ally with England rather than its traditional alliance with France. As Elizabeth's pre-eminent councillor he took the lead in advising her on all matters of public business, foreign and domestic. In 1570 Elizabeth gave him authority to stamp her signature on routine official documents. In February 1571 he was created Baron Burghley. In 1572 he resigned the office of Secretary of State in order to become Lord Treasurer, and was made a member of the Order of the Garter. Burghley, with Francis Walsingham (Secretary of State from 1573 until his death in 1590), continued to take the lead and manoeuvre the Queen and government through all the domestic and foreign business of Elizabeth's reign until his death in 1598. He founded a political dynasty and built up a large library and gave assistance to scholars, having a particular interest in history, cartography, geography, and contemporary science. He was Chancellor of Cambridge University from 1559 until his death.

Eldest son of David Dee and Marcia Roper. Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, 1591-1596, then St John's College, Cambridge, after winning a BIllingsley scholarship. Graduated BA in 1600, was ordained a priest on 1 May 1602, proceeded MA in 1603, and became a fellow of St John's. He proceeded BD in 1610 and DD in 1617. He married Susan le Poreque and had two children. On her death he married Elizabeth Winter; they had no children. Dee was rector of Holy Trinity-the-Less, Knightrider Street, London, 1607-1620, and rector of All Hallows, Lombard Street, 1615-1634. Around 1621-1622 Dee also held the living of Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, through the patronage of the dean (Godfrey Goodman) and chapter of Rochester. He was Chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral 1618-c. 1634, became Dean of Chichester in 1630, and in 1629 was chaplain to the English ambassador in Paris in 1629. In 1630 he was one of the founders of Sion College. He was nominated in September 1633 for the upcoming vacancy of the see of Gloucester, but when the bishop (Godfrey Goodman) decided not to move he was instead elected to Peterborough and was consecrated by Archbishop Laud in 1634. As well as bequeathing funds to found two fellowships and two scholarships at St John's, Dee was instrumental in the establishment of the benefaction of Edmund Mountstephen, whose purpose Dee had wished to be the building of a new College chapel.

Dr. Lewis Erle Shore was a prominent physiologist and neurologist. He was born in Churcham, Gloucestershire in 1863. He was the second son of archaeologist T.W. Shore.
He was educated at Southampton Grammar School and Hartley College. Shore came to St John's College in 1882, graduated BA in 1884, and gained a First Class in Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1885. He then entered St. Bartholomew’s hospital and he graduated in medicine in 1887. In 1887 Shore was awarded his MB and BChir, and his MD followed in 1891.
Shore was a Fellow of St John's from 1890 until his death, and served as Junior Bursar of the College from 1901 to 1933. He was University Demonstrator in Physiology, 1887-1896, and University Lecturer in Physiology, 1896-1930. He contributed a number of articles to the ‘Journal of Physiology’ on various subjects including peptone, gaseous metabolism of the liver and the effects of chloroform. He also co-wrote, alongside Sir Michael Foster, a popular textbook: ‘Physiology for beginners’ which reached a second edition in 1913.
Shore also served on the staff of the 1st Eastern General Hospital at Cambridge from 1916-19 where he specialised in caring for the neurological patients. He was made an OBE in 1919. At the annual meeting of the BMA held in Cambridge in 1920 he was vice-president of the section of Neurology and Psychiatry. He died on July 27th 1944 in Bath.

Simon Swaffield is a Professor of Landscape Architecture. He was admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1971, graduating in Geography in 1976. He is married to Jenny Moore.
Following experience as a landscape architect and landscape planner in the UK, Swaffield travelled with his wife to New Zealand in 1982 in response to a lecturing position advertised at Lincoln College. They stayed and became New Zealand citizens. He went on to become the programme leader, the foundation head of department, and then in 1988 Swaffield became New Zealand’s first Professor of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University, eventually retiring in 2018.
He serves on several editorial boards of international landscape journals. He also has an affiliate role at the University of Copenhagen and he’s engaged in a number of writing projects with colleagues in New Zealand and internationally.
Swaffield’s research combines insights into the theoretical foundations of landscape architecture with analysis of landscape values, dynamics and governance in NZ production and urban landscapes. His work involves collaborations and comparative studies in both North America and Europe. Over the years his major focus has been helping landscape architecture develop from a scholarly profession into a full university discipline, and it is now an important part of Lincoln’s academic profile. In 2007 he received the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture award for outstanding research and communication. In 2010 he was a Velux Visiting Professor at the University of Copenhagen.
He continues to make a major contribution to research into landscape change and the globalisation of local landscapes. He has co-authored and had published a number of books on theory, research, and analysis, which have contributed to landscape education well beyond New Zealand. Swaffield’s publications include: ‘Theory in Landscape Architecture’ (2002); ‘Globalisation and Agricultural Landscapes’ (2010); ‘Landscape Architecture Research’, (2011) and ‘Landscape Analysis’ (2017). He was also the founding editor of the journal ‘Landscape Review’.

James Beaumont Neilson was an engineer who contributed greatly towards the expansion of the British iron industry in the 19th century. He was born on the 22nd of June 1792 in Shettleston, Scotland, to Walter Neilson and his wife Barbara. Walter was an engine-wright at Govan colliery, and Neilson joined him there after leaving elementary education at fourteen. Neilson’s brother John would become a prominent engineer, and after two years at Govan Neilson became his apprentice at Oakbank. During his spare time, he studied physics and chemistry from Anderson’s Institution in Glasgow.

In 1814, Neilson was appointed as an engine-wright at a colliery in Irvine, but it was not to last; he lost his job when his employer’s business failed. Neilson then moved to Glasgow, and became appointed foreman at the Glasgow gasworks at the age of twenty-five. He rose through the ranks to manager and engineer, and used his influence to improve both the manufacture and utilization of gas and the lives of his employees. Neilson encouraged the men to educate themselves, establishing a workers’ institute which featured a library, lecture room, a laboratory, and a workshop.

Neilson is best known for his discovery of the value of hot blast in iron manufacture, a breakthrough which he began to research in the 1820’s. He came to the conclusion that the manufacture of iron would be more efficient if hot blast was used rather than cold. The prevailing view at the time was that cold blast was more effective for the manufacture of iron, and the ironmasters were reluctant to allow Neilson to test his theory on their furnaces. However, when the hot blast was finally tested at the Clyde ironworks, it was so immediately successful that two other men—Charles Macintosh and John Wilson—entered into a partnership with Neilson to patent the invention.

With refinement, hot blast allowed the same amount of fuel to produce three times as much iron, and with a wider range of fuel than had worked with cold blast. Neilson’s success—to the tune of £30,000 a year—led to controversy. In 1832 the Baird ironmasters challenged Neilson’s patent and refused to pay the licence duty that allowed them to use his process. The resistance snowballed; in 1833 Neilson had conducted three legal cases against iron companies who challenged his patent. He enjoyed several more years of success until 1839, when the Bairds challenged him again. This began a four year legal battle involving twenty separate court actions against different British iron companies, with many in Scotland forming an association against Neilson. The case was finally closed in England at the end of 1841, in Neilson’s favour. The Scottish trial in 1843 set a record for the longest trial conducted at the time and called over 102 witnesses before settling, again, in Neilson’s favour.

Neilson married Barbara Montgomerie in 1815. After her death, he remarried Jane Gemmell in 1846, but she would also died in 1863. In 1832 Neilson became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, and a fellow of the Royal Society in 1846. He retired in 1847, and purchased a property in the Isle of Bute, before moving to Queenshill in 1851. There, he founded an institution similar to the one he had set up for his workers in Glasgow. Neilson died on the 18th of January 1865, survived by four sons and three daughters.

Founded by John Walter I 1785, The Times is Britain’s oldest national daily newspaper. It was first published under the title Daily Universal Register, before becoming the first newspaper in the world to use the Times name in 1788.

The Times introduced digital subscriptions to the paper in 2010. The Times is the biggest selling quality print newspaper in the UK, and was named Britain’s most trusted newspaper by Oxford University.