Kathleen Lonsdale’s early achievements in college physics brought her to the attention of W. H. Bragg, who offered her a position in his laboratory at University College London and later at the Royal Institution. After a brief time in Leeds after her marriage in 1927, she returned to work with Bragg until his death. Later she became Reader in Crystallography and, in 1949, Professor of Chemistry and Head of the Department of Crystallography at University College, London, thus becoming the first woman tenured professor there. Her major scientific accomplishments were studies in mathematical crystallography and space group theory in relation to the structure analysis of crystals, the structure of hexamethylbenzene and other simple aromatic compounds, proving the planarity of the benzene nucleus.<br/>A devout Quaker, she always harbored a revulsion for the evil of war, and even went to prison as a result of her refusal to register for civil defense duties during World War II. According to her husband, this stay in prison was the single most formative experience in her career: after prison, she could take honors and accolades in stride, among them being named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1956). When she retired, she was kept busy by the enormous volume of correspondence concerned with peace and prison – and she kept on working even in her hospital bed where, in 1971, she died of cancer at the age of sixty-eight.

Kathleen Yardley Lonsdale: Pioneering crystallographer and peace activist

254th National Meeting (2017)

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