University College, Dundee

University College, Dundee (the University of Dundee since 1967), was founded in 1881 as a satellite campus of the University of St. Andrews with the mission of promoting the education of persons of both sexes. 29 

It was the organic chemist Alexander McKenzie,30 Professor of Chemistry, who attracted a significant number of women chemistry researchers. During his reign from 1914 to 1938, they included Isobel Smith (see below), Nellie Walker (see below), Mary Lesslie (see Chap. 4), Agnes Grant Mitchell, Ethel Luis (see below), and E. R. L. Gow. 

Though University College, Dundee, attracted a high proportion of women students, gender relations were not always smooth, particularly in the 1920s as An Undergraduette commented  

It is interesting to note this division among the women students of the modems and the traditionalists. Another correspondent, Alphabeta, sounded even more bitter about her male colleagues  

Even in the 1940s, women s presence at University was being questioned, as this male correspondent wrote  

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Mary Stephen Lesslie,19 daughter of Andrew J. W. Lesslie of Dundee, was bom in 1901 and educated at Morgan Academy, Dundee. She was only 16 years old when she entered University College, Dundee (now the University of Dundee), graduating with an M.A. (St. Andrews) in 1922, and a B.Sc. (St. Andrews) in 1924. She then completed a Ph.D. (St. Andrews) with Alexander McKenzie (see Chap. 7) on stereochemistry in 1927, her results being published in two papers. 

The first woman staff member was Nellie Walker.34 The daughter of William Walker, she was educated at Dundee High School and entered University College, Dundee, in 1908 at age 17. She obtained an M.A. (St. Andrews) in 1911 and a B.Sc. (St. Andrews) in 1913. For the next 2 years she was a research scholar, and then briefly in 1915 undertook war work with the Royal Society War Committee. Later that year, she obtained a position as Demonstrator in Chemistry at Bedford College. In 1918, she returned to Dundee, where she completed a Ph.D. (St. Andrews) in 1920. 

Walker was then appointed as University Assistant. The editor of The College Magazine of University College, Dundee commented ... 

Anon. (Nov 1940). The College Official Magazine of SRC, University College, Dundee 20(1) 20. The magazine is cited here and subsequently by permission of University of Dundee Archive Services. 

University College, Dundee (University of St. Andrews), student records and Bedford College, staff records. 

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... 

Anon. (16 March 1889). Professor Percy F. Frankland. The College, Magazine of University College, Dundee 1(3) 87. 

LEVERHULME PROFESSOR OF INORGANIC AND PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL FORMERLY PROFESSOR OP CHEMISTRY AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, DUNDEE TN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS... 

Professor D. H. Everett has translated and revised the work. Now Leverhulme Professor of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry at the University of Bristol, he was formerly Professor of Chemistry, University College, Dundee, in the University of St. Andrews. Before going to Dundee, in 1948, he was Lecturer in Chemistry and Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. 

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