DAVIES
,
WILLIAM LEWIS
(
1896
-
1941
),
specialist in analytical dairy chemistry
;
b.
23 Feb. 1896
, the son of
David
(a
farmer
) and
Jane
Davies
of
Cwmlogin
,
Llansawel, Carms.
He attended
Llandeilo county school
before joining the
Royal Horse Artillery
in
1914
; he afterwards saw active service in
France
. He graduated
B.Sc. (Wales)
with first-class honours in chemistry from
University College of Wales
,
Aberystwyth
, then proceeding to
Gonville and Caius College
,
Cambridge
, where he graduated
Ph.D.
in
1924
. In
1925
he was appointed
advisory agricultural chemist
at
Reading University
during which period he
published papers on the nitrogenous compounds of fish meal and the proteins of green forage plants
. Two years later he became
biochemist
at the
National Institute for Research in Dairying
, his field of research and investigation consequently becoming wider. He was joint
author of a series of papers on the ripening of cheese
, but the work which established him as a leading authority in his subject was
The Chemistry of Milk
, the first edition of which appeared in
1936
. In recognition of his contribution to dairy chemistry the
University of Wales
conferred on him in
1935
the degree of
D.Sc.
He was appointed in
1939
Director of Dairying Research to the Government
in
India
and had the satisfaction of organising and seeing opened on
St. David's Day, 1941
, an active research centre,
The Imperial Dairy Research Institute
. He d. at
New Delhi
on
15 May 1941
, and was buried at the
Nicholson cemetery
,
New Delhi
, a Celtic cross erected by the staff of the Institute marking his grave. His wife was formerly
Miss
Eleanor
Unwin
of
Cambridge
.
Bibliography:
-
J.G.D.
, ‘William Lewis Davies’,
The Biochemical Journal
, London
, 36 (
1942
), 543;
-
information from his sister,
Mrs. J. Thomas
.
Author:
Miss Margaret Beatrice Davies, M.B.E., Aberystwyth
