Alexander Fleck, 1st Baron Fleck

Alexander Fleck, 1st Baron Fleck
Born	(1889-11-11)11 November 1889 Glasgow^[1]
Died	6 August 1968(1968-08-06) (aged 78)
Institutions	Imperial Chemical Industries Royal Institution University of Glasgow
Alma mater	University of Glasgow
Notable awards	KBE Fellow of the Royal Society (1955)^[1] Wilhelm Exner Medal (1957)

Alexander Fleck, 1st Baron Fleck FRS^[1] KBE (11 November 1889 – 6 August 1968) was a British industrial chemist.^[2]

Background and education

Fleck was born and educated in Glasgow. The son of a coal merchant, he left school at the age of fourteen to become a laboratory boy at the University of Glasgow. When Frederick Soddy arrived as a lecturer, Fleck became his assistant.
He studied at evening classes, eventually becoming a student and a post graduate researcher at the University. He attained a Doctor of Science degree in the chemistry of radioactive substances.^[3] He was associated with the Beatson Oncology Centre where he studied the effects of radium on cancerous growths at the beginning of World War I.

Career

Fleck was appointed to the board of ICI in 1944 and was its chairman from 1953 to 1960. He was also Chairman of Scottish Agricultural Industries, the Coal Board Organization Committee, the Scientific Advisory Council, and the Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1955.^[1] In 1960 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture^[4] to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject 'Interdependence of Engineering and Chemistry'. He was President of the Royal Institution from 1963 to 1968. In 1961 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Fleck, of Saltcoats in the County of Ayr.^[5]

Personal life

Lord Fleck died in August 1968, aged 78, when the barony became extinct.

References

1 2 3 4 Holroyd, R. (1971). "Alexander Fleck. Baron Fleck of Saltcoats 1889-1968". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 17: 242. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1971.0010.
↑ Portraits of Alexander Fleck, Baron Fleck at the National Portrait Gallery, London
↑ Reed Business Information (22 August 1957). New Scientist. Reed Business Information. pp. 20–. ISSN 0262-4079.
↑
↑ The London Gazette: no. 42272. p. 933. 7 February 1961.

Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Fleck 1961–1968	Extinct

Chairmen of Imperial Chemical Industries

Lord Melchett (1926–1930)
Lord McGowan (1930–1950)
Lord Fleck (1953–1960)
Sir Paul Chambers (1960–1968)
Sir Peter Allen (1968–1971)
Sir Jack Callard (1971–1975)
Sir Rowland Wright (1975-1978)
Sir Maurice Hodgson (1978-1982)
Sir John Harvey-Jones (1982–1987)
Sir Denys Henderson (1987–1995)
Sir Ronnie Hampel (1995–1999)
Charles Miller Smith (1999–2001)
Lord Trotman (2002–2003)
Peter Ellwood (2004–2008)

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