Rosalind Henley Mrs. Pitt-Rivers

Rosalind (Ros) Venetia Henley,37 born on 4 March 1908, developed her love of chemistry at the age of 12, when she was given a chemistry set by an uncle  

This present proved to be such a success that she, along with her cousin Ed,. .. was given the stables. .. to be used as a laboratory. The inhabitants of the estate were not only alarmed by the smells that emanated from there but remember at least one explosion that came quite close to a disaster.37(a) 

Her secondary education was at Notting Hill High School (a GPDSC school), followed by Malvern Girls College. However, her science teacher pronounced that I fear Rosalind will never 

Henley s research supervisor was Charles Harington,38 and he proved to be just the sort of mentor that Henley needed. 

Following the completion of her Ph.D. in 1939, Henley accompanied Harington on his move to the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Hampstead. Her field of specialisation was iodoproteins, and her research on them over the rest of her career was to garner her worldwide fame. The Second World War disrupted her research, as she was seconded to various war-work projects. The last of these, helping the survivors at the liberation of a concentration camp, proved so traumatic that she became a heavy smoker, the probable cause of her death 25 years later. In 1952, she isolated the thyroid hormone, triiodothyronine. The discovery of this new and highly unusual hormone contributed largely to her election as Fellow of the Royal Society only two years later. 

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