Abstract
BY the death at Cambridge, on April 9, of DR. RICHARD HENRY VERNON, at thirty-six years of age, the younger generation of chemists in this country has suffered a serious loss. The elder son of the late Hon. William Vernon, Dr. Vernon was educated abroad and took the degree of Ph.D. at the Zurich Polytechnic. At the close of his course at Zurich the war broke out, and although his health had always been delicate he hastened to offer his services and enlisted as a private, receiving later a commission in the Dorset Regiment. After having been invalided home, he worked for the Chemical Warfare Committee, first at the Imperial College of Science, and afterwards in the University Chemical Laboratory, Cambridge. He was then sent to the Shell Filling Factory at Chittening, where his health became seriously affected. After the armistice he returned to Cambridge, and was appointed to the official position of assistant to the professor of chemistry. Dr. Vernon possessed in a remarkable degree the special sense of the organic chemist, and his manipulative ability was quite exceptional. His work on tellurium, which led to the discovery of the iso-meric dimethyltelluronium iodides, had an important bearing on the stereochemistry of elements of higher atomic weight and impressed all who had seen it with his powers. He had a personality of singular charm and attractiveness that rapidly won the friendship of all with whom he was brought into contact.
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[Obituaries]. Nature 107, 242 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107242a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107242a0