Philip James Yorke

Philip James Yorke (13 October 1799 – 14 December 1874) was a British Army officer and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Life

Philip James Yorke was born on 13 October 1799, the eldest son of Philip Yorke, prebendary of Ely and Anna Maria, daughter of Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers. One of his paternal great grandfathers was Earl of Hardwicke. At the age of nine he went to study under Dr. Pearson in Surrey, and at age 12 entered Harrow School, in 1810. Aged 16, he obtained a commission in the Scots Fusilier Guards and left Harrow. He remained in the regiment until 1852 and became a Lieutenant-Colonel. During the Crimean war he was appointed Colonel of the Herefordshire militia, a post which he held for three years.^[1][2]

On 27 April 1843 Yorke married Emily Clifford, the youngest daughter of William Morgan Clifford of Perrystone, Herefordshire. Yorke died on 14 December 1874.^[1][2]

Works

The Royal Society's catalogue contains a list of thirteen papers by Yorke which show him to have been an accomplished chemist, meteorologist and mineralogist.^[2] His first scientific paper was an investigation of the action of lead on water (Philosophical Magazine, 1834 [3] v. 81).^[1] He also took an active part in the Royal Institution, of which he was often a manager. In 1841, alongside his military career, Yorke became one of the original members of the Chemical Society, which merged with the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Society for Analytical Chemistry and the Faraday Society in 1980 into the modern day Royal Society of Chemistry.^[3] Yorke was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1849. He became Vice-president of the Chemical Society in 1852 and later the President from the 30th of March 1853 to the 30th of March 1855.^[2]

Notes

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1900). "Yorke, Philip James". Dictionary of National Biography. 63. London: Smith, Elder & Co.