Grace Toynbee Mrs. Frankland

Percy Frankland, together with his father, Edward Frankland, had set up a private analytical laboratory in London, and it was here that Toynbee commenced her scientific career. Though both father and son were chemists, they had a strong interest in bacteriological problems, particularly those relating to human health. Toynbee s first publication, co-authored with Percy Frankland, was on microorganisms in air. 

Percy Frankland was appointed in 1888 as Professor of Chemistry at University College, Dundee, and the institution s magazine, The College, reported Any notice of Dr. Frankland would be incomplete without some reference to Mrs. Frankland, who has worthily aided and seconded him in his scientific 

At Dundee, Toynbee continued her research, which included studies of the reactions involved in bacteriological fermentation as a means of synthesising chemical compounds. In 1894, they moved to Birmingham, where Frankland had been appointed Professor of Chemistry. It was during her time at Birmingham that Toynbee added her signature to the 1904 petition for the admission of women to the Chemical Society (see Chap. 2). 

In 1894, the Franklands co-authored a book, Micro Organisms in Water Their Significance, Identification and Removal18 then Toynbee, on her own, wrote a more popular book, Bacteria in Daily Life,19 published in 1903. It would seem that after the move to Birmingham, Toynbee focused more on science journalism than laboratory research. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society in 1900, and was one of the first 12 women scientists admitted to the Linnean Society in 1904. 

With Frankland s retirement in 1919, they moved to Scotland, where Toynbee died on 5 October 1946, Frankland dying 3 weeks later. Frankland s obituarist, William Garner, noted  

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