Frederick Sydney Dainton, Baron Dainton of Hallam Moors

Frederick Sydney Dainton was born in Sheffield on 11 November 1914. He was educated at the Central Secondary School for Boys, Sheffield, winning an Exhibition scholarship to St John's College Oxford in 1933 (Goldsmiths' Company Exhibition 1935), from where he graduated with First Class Honours in Chemistry in 1937. Dainton then moved to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge for postgraduate research on reactions of simple gases, studying under R.G.W. Norrish. He was a Goldsmiths' Company Senior Student, 1939 (Ph.D. 1940), before being appointed University Demonstrator in Chemistry 1944 and H.O. Jones Lecturer in Physical Chemistry 1946. He was elected a Fellow of St Catharine's College Cambridge in 1945.

In 1950 Dainton returned to Yorkshire as Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Leeds. He stayed in Leeds for fifteen years, a period particularly productive both in terms of building up the department into a leading centre of research in physical chemistry and in pursuing his own research. Although Dainton's initial research field had been photochemistry, he broadened his studies thereafter to the study of combustion, chain reactions and polymerisation kinetics. In his own estimation his main contributions were: the kinetics and thermodynamics of addition polymerisation, the kinetics of cationic and anionic polymerisation, redox reactions, photochlorination, the reactivity of oxygen atoms in singlet state, photochemical electron transfer, quantum mechanical tunnelling and radiation chemistry.

In 1965 Dainton accepted an invitation to serve as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham. He took up the post at a particularly turbulent time for universities worldwide and the student disturbances at Nottingham proved a considerable challenge. Of his achievements during this period, Dainton was particularly proud of the establishment of the University's Medical School, which was opened in 1970. Throughout his time at Nottingham Dainton maintained his links with active research work through his Honorary Directorship of the Cookridge Radiation Research Centre at Leeds. In 1969 Dainton was asked to become Chairman of the Council for Scientific Policy (CSP), of which he was already a member. While not a full-time post, Dainton felt its demands could not be combined with those of the Vice-Chancellorship. He accepted the Chairmanship of the Council, resigning from Nottingham, and also took the opportunity to return to academic research and teaching as Dr Lees' Professor of Chemistry at Oxford. He held the Chair for three years.

The CSP was abolished in 1972, Dainton becoming the first Chairman of its successor body the Advisory Board for the Research Councils 1972-1973. He was then invited by the Secretary of State for Education and Science (Margaret Thatcher) to become Chairman of the University Grants Committee (UGC). Dainton took up this post shortly before a change of government and during a worsening economic crisis. His term was marked by the introduction of government austerity measures that markedly constrained the ongoing expansion of universities. Despite the difficulties facing the higher education sector the number of medical students increased significantly during Dainton's Chairmanship, and he successfully encouraged industrial sponsorship of engineering courses through new undergraduate courses with an emphasis on the needs of manufacturing industry. Dainton retired from the UGC in 1978.

Dainton was appointed to the National Radiological Protection Board in 1977, serving to 1985 (from 1978 as Chairman). In 1978 he became Chairman of the British Library Board. His association with the national library can be said to date from his Chairmanship of the National Libraries Committee, 1967-1969. Dainton arrived at the British Library at a crucial moment. A site for the Library had been acquired on Euston Road at St Pancras but there was still considerable opposition to the move. The difficulties were exacerbated when the Labour party lost the 1979 election, as the incoming Conservative Government was not committed to the project. Dainton met Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister, in September 1980 and this face-to-face meeting was important in persuading her of the case for the new site. Dainton served as Chairman of the British Library until 1985 and remained in touch with developments thereafter. Also in 1978 Dainton had been invited to become Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, a post he held to 1997. As a native of the city of Sheffield this appointment was particularly appropriate. Dainton took a keen interest in the University and was particularly conscious of his responsibilities at the University degree congregations, delivering a different address at each. Dainton held many other positions and was active well into his ninth decade. These included the Chairmanship of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School 1980-1989 (serving as President from 1989 to 1997) and membership of the Court of Governors of the London School of Economics 1980-1997 (Chairman of the Library Panel from 1986). Dainton had joined the Goldsmiths' Company's Court of Assistants in 1973 and in 1982-1983 he served as Prime Warden of the Company. He also chaired its Education Committee. It is interesting to note that Dainton's association with the Goldsmiths' Company dated from his undergraduate days in Oxford when the Company awarded him a scholarship, with a postgraduate scholarship following in 1939.

This brief outline of Dainton's career gives some indication of the range of his activities in the fields of science, university administration, academic standards and public service. However, he made a great many contributions additional to those principal commitments set out above. In the 1960s, for example, he served on two significant working parties examining issues relating to the 'swing Away from Science'. The first was the Enquiry into the Flow of Candidates in Science and Technology into Higher Education, established by the CSP under the chairmanship of Dainton in February 1965, to examine the causes of and remedies for the shortage of young people studying science and engineering at university. It reported in February 1968. He was also a member of the Working Group on Manpower Parameters for Scientific Growth, established under the chairmanship of Lord Swann in December 1965, which reported in September 1968. As Chairman of the CSP Dainton was involved in formulating policy fundamental to the planning and organisation of government-funded science in the following decade and beyond. He also chaired the CSP Working Group on Research Organisation which contributed to A Framework for Government Research and Development (the Rothschild Report), and the CSP's Working Group which advised on how the recommendations in this report (and the customer/contractor principle in particular) should be applied.

After Dainton was created a Life Baron in 1986 he became an active member of the House of Lords. He served on the Select Committee on Science and Technology, chairing three influential sub-committees, the Academic Research Careers Sub-Committee, the Systematic Biology Research Sub-Committee and the Forensic Science Sub-Committee. As a member of the House of Lords, he also made significant contributions to the consideration of education policy and medical teaching and training.

Dainton was accorded many honours and awards including over 25 honorary degrees from universities worldwide. He was elected FRS in 1957 (Davy Medal 1969, Faraday Medal 1974), knighted in 1971 and elevated to the peerage as Baron Dainton of Hallam Moors in 1986. Dainton died on 5 December 1997. He was survived by his wife, Barbara Dainton with whom he had a son and two daughters.

From the guide to the Papers and correspondence of Frederick Sydney Dainton, Baron Dainton of Hallam Moors, 1914-1997, ca 1885-2002, (Sheffield University Library)