D. M. Newitt

Professor Dudley Maurice Newitt(1894–1980), chemical engineer

1894 Born in London, the second son of Edward James Dunn Newitt, a ballistics engineer, and his wife, Alice Gertrude Lewis.

Educated at school at Wandsworth

1910 Appointed assistant chemist at the Nobel's explosives factory, Ardeer

Attended evening classes at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College

1912 passed his intermediate BSc but plans for further study were disrupted by the War.

WWI Served on the north-west frontier in India and then Mesopotamia

1918 Received the Military Cross for his participation in the capture of Samaria, and was promoted major.

1919 Continued as a regional administrator in Syria up to demobilization.

1921 Graduated in chemistry at the Royal College of Science in South Kensington. Postgraduate studies in chemical engineering with Professor J. W. Hinchley and research in fuel technology with Professor W. A. Bone at Imperial College.

1936 Reader in high pressure technology at Imperial College

WWI Appointed scientific director of Special Operations Executive in 1941. In this post he had to supervise the invention, manufacture, and supply of every kind of gadget to secret agents in enemy-occupied country, to further their operations of sabotage.

1942 Elected FRS

1945 Appointed first Courtaulds professor of chemical engineering at Imperial College.

1949 President of the British Institution of Chemical Engineers

1956 Became pro-rector of Imperial College

1961 Retired from the university

1980 Died in Farnham.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• Biography, ODNB