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- Royal College of Chemistry
Henry Bassett, F.I.C
Born 1837; Died August 30th, 1920
Henry Bassett, who died on August 30th, 1920, at the age of eighty-three, had been a Fellow of the Society since 1864, and many of our older Fellows, besides those who enjoyed his friendship, will remember him as a once-constant attendant at its meetings and as a member of its Council, on which he served for two full periods, 1870-1837, and 1890-1893.
He received his early chemical training from Hofmann in the old College of Chemistry, whence he went to Oxford for a time as assistant to Sir Benjamin Brodie. He returned to London and established himself in a little laboratory (which he called “The Den”) in the Polygon, Somers Town, migrating afterwards to Euston Grove (remembered as “Den No. 2”), where he worked and experimented for several years. A good portrait of him by Houghton, painted in the Euston Grove “Den” and exhibited at the Royal Academy, survives as a memento of this period. Subsequently he joined the late F.A. Manning, well remembered as a specialist in matters relating to anthracene, in whose laboratory he spent a large part of his life. In 1893 he re-established himself in independent analytical and consulting practice in St. Andrew’s Hill (his “Den No. 3”), where he continued to work at anthracene, but also largely concerned himself with investigations relating to non-ferrous alloys, as well as with miscellaneous consultative work, in which he was engaged almost up to the time of his death.
Bassett contributed in his earlier years several papers of interest to the Transactions of the Society. The first of these was on “Tetrabasic Carbonate of Ethyl” (1864). In 1865 he contributed a “Note on the Action of Chloropicrin and Chloroform on Potassium Acetate”; in 1866, a paper on “A Cyanogen Derivative of March Gas”, in 1867, a paper on “Julin’s Chloride of Carbon”; and, in 1872, a paper on “Eulyte and Dyalyte.” As far as the Transactions are concerned he was then silent until 1890, when he contributed a paper on the “Interaction of Iodine, Water, and Potassium Chlorate.” The Abstracts of our Journal give summaries of various other papers chronicling experimental investigations published in the Chemical News, including “Reactions of Tin with Sulphuric Acid” (1886), “Preparation of Tricholoromethyl-Sulphuric Cholirde” (1886), “Analysis of Anthracene” (1895), and “Reduction of Chromic Acid by Acetic Acid and its effect on Anthracene Testing” (1889); and also of a paper (1892) on the “Tabular Expression of the Periodic Law.”
Bassett was fond of artistic society and a lover of music, being for many years an active member of the Royal Amateur Orchestral Society, in which he played the trumpet - an instrument in the construction of which he interested himself to the extent of devising improvements therein.
He was married in 1879 to Mary Kate Colchester, who happily survives him, and left two daughters and one son, Dr. Henry Bassett, who is Professor of Chemistry at University College, Reading.
Nature - International Weekly Journal of Science
September 16, 1920
Obituaries - Henry Bassett
By the death of Mr. Henry Bassett, F.I.C., at the age of eighty-three on August 30, we have lost one of the few remaining survivors of that ardent band of young chemists who studied under Dr. A.W. Hofmarin at the Royal College of Chemistry. Handicapped at the start by the death of his father when he was only nine years old, Mr. Bassett had an uphill fight all his life; but he was animated by the same spirit which often enables the poet and the artist to produce good work under most unfavourable conditions.
1841 British Census of Kentish Town, St. Pancras, Middlesex, England
Henry Bassett - 35 - M - Born in County - Architect
Maria - 35 - F - Not born in County
Henry - 3 - M - Born in County
Rose - 1 - F - Born in County
1851 British Census of 10 Terriane Terrace, Kentish Town, St. Pancras, Middlesex, England
Maria Bassett (Widow) - 47 - F - Head - Deptford, Kent - Proprietor of Houses
Henry - 13 - M - Son - Camden Town, Middlesex - Scholar
Rose - 10 - F - Daughter - Hampstead Road, Middlesex - Scholar
1861 British Census of Somers Town, St. Pancras, Middlesex, England
Maria Bassett (Widow) - 57 - F - Head - Deptford, Kent - Proprietor of Houses
Henry - 23 - M - Son - Pancras, Middlesex - Professional Chemist
Rose - 20 - F - Daughter - Hampstead, Middlesex
1871 British Census of 56 Upper Gloucester Street, St. Marylebone, London, England
Maria Bassett - 67 - F - Head - Deptford, Kent - Income from leases
Henry - 33 - M - Son - St. Pancras, Middlesex - Analytical Chemist
Rose - 30 - F - Daughter - Hampstead, Middlesex
1881 British Census of 26 Beliatha Villas, London, Middlesex, England
Henry Bassett - 43 - M - Head - St. Pancras, Middlesex - Analytical Chemist (Scientific Quantity)
Mary K. - 35 - F - Wife - Ipswich, Suffolk
Julia E. Ardney - 22 - F - Servant - Ireland - General Servant
1901 British Census of Barsbury, Islington, London, England
Henry Bassett - 62 - M - Head - St. Pancras, London - Analytical Chemist
Mary K. - 55 - F - Wife - Ipswich, Suffolk
Henry - 19 - M - Son - Islington, London
Kate R. - 18 - F - Daughter - Islington, London
Mary J. - 17 - F - Daughter - Islington, London
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