680 OBITUARY [Vol. 76 Obituary THOMAS HAROLD FAIRBROTHER THOMAS HAROLD FAIRBROTHER, who held the position of Joint Managing Director of McDougalls Ltd., died on August 4th, 1951, the day before his 58th birthday. He had been in ill-health for some months, but had continued to perform actively his responsible work until shortly before his death. Fairbrother was educated at Wigan Grammar School and Manchester University, where he studied under Rutherford and Weizmann. He had a brilliant career at college and gained the Leblanc Medal. During the 1914-18 war he obtained a commission in the Army, but relinquished it to work on explosives under Professor H. B. Dixon, and later became manager of H.M. factory at Lytham, making picric acid and T.N.T. In 1918 he joined Levinsteins and, when that firm became incorporated in British Dyestuffs Corporation, he was made head of the Fine Chemical Department.In March, 1927, he joined the well-known milling firm, McDougalls, as the Chief Chemist, and for his excellent work in this new field in manu- facturing self-raising flour he was promoted to the Board in 1937 and became Joint Managing Director in 1946. He thus joined the ranks of the relatively few chemists who rose from the position of chemist to that of one of the principals of the firm, and of a firm that was not primarily a chemical firm. His rise to this position was not only due to his outstanding grasp of the technicalities of his work, but to his judgment, wise counsel and personality. To chemists his name will always be associated with his work on evaporative loss from flour in storage, to which his paper on “The Influence of Environment on the Moisture Content of Flour and Wheat” (Cereal Chem., 1929, 6 , 379) was an important contribution; but his published work shows that his interests were wide, covering the relationship between antiseptic actions and chemical constitutions in synthetic aniline dyestuffs ( J .Path. Bact., 1922, 145), the etiology and treatment of diabetes (Brit. Med. J., April 29th, 1922), and the preparations of certain substituted ureas and their use in the treatment of trypanosomiasis ( J . Path.Dec., 19511 j PICKFORD 681 B a d , 1925, 515). He was a prolific and forcible writer on many cereal and nutritional problems in publications dealing with food. Fairbrother was an outstanding member of the Chemical Club, occupying the positions of President, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Honorary Treasurer. He nearly always attended meetings of our Society when papers were read on cereal problems and when he spoke he always had something constructive and interesting to say. He married in 1920 a cousin of Ernest Melling, Muriel Peirpoint Melling, who survives him. He had no children. To his fellow cereal chemists his passing is a blow, and he will be remembered for long by his wide circle of friends in the profession. Although he attained considerable advance- ment, he remained unaffected, was always cheery and was always affectionately known as Tommy Fairbrother. D. W. KENT- JONES