Arthur George Perkin

Arthur George Perkin was an English chemist and Professor of Colour Chemistry and Dyeing at the University of Leeds, born at Sudbury, close to his fathers dyeworks at Greenford, on 13 December 1861. He was the second son of Sir William Henry Perkin, who founded the aniline dye industry, and his brother William Henry Perkin Jr. became Professor of Chemistry at Manchester and Oxford. He was educated at the City of London School and then studied chemistry at the Royal College of Chemistry in London, at Andersons College in Glasgow and at Leeds. He published his first paper at the age of 19, worked in industry for Hardman and Holden in Manchester for ten years from 1882, and returned to the Yorkshire College as a lecturer and research chemist in 1892. When the college became the University of Leeds in 1904 he was appointed Professor of Colour Chemistry and Dyeing in 1916, retiring in 1926 as Emeritus Professor. He died in Headingley on 30 May 1937.