James Kendall (chemist)

James Pickering Kendall FRS FRSE (30 July 1889 Chobham, Surrey - 14 June 1978 Edinburgh) was an English chemist.

He was born in Chobham, Surrey to soldier William Henry Kendall and his second wife Rebecca. He attended the local village school and then from 1900 Farnham Grammar School. In 1907 he went up to Edinburgh University graduating both Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in 1910. In 1912, with the help of a scholarship he left for the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry in Stockholm to work with Arrhenius on electrolytes.

In 1913 he accepted the position as Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, New York. He also served in 1917 as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Naval Reserve, acting as Liaison Officer with Allied Services on Chemical Warfare.

His candidacy for the Royal Society of London in 1924 read: "Distinguished as an investigator in physical and general chemistry. Has published since 1912, partly with collaborators, over sixty papers in Proc Roy Soc, Journ Chem Soc, Phil Mag, Journ Amer Chem Soc, Journ Phys Chem, etc, dealing with the following subjects: - 'Mechanism of the Ionisation Process'; The Problem of Strong Electrolytes'; 'Correlation of Compound Formation, Ionisation and Solubility in Solution, and in Fused Salt Mixtures'; 'Prediction of Solubility in Polar Solutions'; 'Stability of Hydrates and other Additive Compounds'; 'Viscosity of Binary Mixtures'; 'A Method for the Separation of Rare Earths and of Isotopes." He was elected in 1927.

In 1926 he moved to be Professor of Chemistry at New York University pending a final move back to Scotland to be Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University.

In 1938 Kendall was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on Young Chemists and Great Discoveries.

After many years of service to the Royal Society of Edinburgh he was appointed President from 1949-1954.

He retired in 1959 and died in Edinburgh in 1978, He had married Alice Tyldesley of British Columbia in 1915 who died in 1955. He was survived by his second wife Jane Steven and children from his first marriage.

James Kendall appears as a character in the opera Breathe Freely by Scottish Composer Julian Wagstaff. (The opera's title is borrowed from Kendall's book of the same name).

Books Published

He wrote and co-authored several books including:

• Smith's Introductory College Chemistry (revised 1938) Appleton-Century, New York
• Breathe Freely! The Truth About Poison Gas. First published April 1938, reprinted April 1938 and again in 1939 by Camelot Press Ltd London and Southampton
• Young Chemists and Great Discoveries, G. Bell & Sons, London, 1939