Professor Harry Robinson Hudson CChem FRSC

Harry R. Hudson, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at The London Metropolitan University, died in April 2016 at the age of 86. 

Harry will be best remembered for his passionate interest in Organophosphorus Chemistry and its plethora of applications.   All those who came under the influence of Harry's tutelage benefitted enormously from his ability to convey his passion and world class expertise in this key area of organic chemistry.   Harry successfully supervised a multitude of home and international PhD students, several of whom went onto become full time academics in their own right.   His research lab was an intellectually invigorating environment in which to listen, learn, and further the development of crucial synergies in mainstream Organic and Organophosphorus Chemistry.

Over the years Harry developed deep and long standing collaborations with colleagues from as far afield as Russia, Hungary, Brazil, Nigeria, and Sweden. He was very keen to work with Industry, and worthy of note was his role during the 1970s as Official Milk Analyst at the Annual Dairy Show at Olympia, as well as a long term collaboration with KenoGard AB in Stockholm, Sweden (now part of Bayer Crop Science), first on the fungicide guazatine triacetate, then on the synthesis and fungicidal action of novel aminophosphonic acid derivatives.

It was at Riley High School for boys in Hull that his interest in chemistry deepened, and he gained his first Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry at the Hull Technical College in 1949. Following two years of National Service in the Royal Air Force, teaching boy entrants, his first employment was with the Distillers Company in Hull. 

In 1958 he took up a position of Reader in Chemistry at the Northern Polytechnic, Holloway Road, London, and gained his PhD under the direction of Dr. William Gerrard in 1960.  

As a chemist and teacher Harry's accolades are numerous.   He was awarded his Doctorate of Science in 1976 and became Emeritus Professor of the University of North London in 1996.   His name is listed in the Inglewood Books compendium "Who's Who in Education."

Harry was a keen member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and was first admitted as a student of The Royal Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain & Ireland in November 1946. In December 1950 he was elected as an Associate of The Royal Institute of Chemistry, and a Fellow in 1964.   He became a Life member in 1995 and in 2001 received a certificate in recognition of fifty years of membership.

The forty or more PhD students who studied under Harry's direction came from all corners of the world, enriching his family as a whole as many of his students and colleagues became valued friends who visited their home, often sharing Harry's other great passion - music.   On this subject he was an expert connoisseur.                                

Research continued unabated throughout Harry's retirement years. Shortly before he went into hospital he posted chemical samples to Hungary for further analysis, and only three weeks before he passed away his very last collaboration with Hungarian colleagues was published online, and is soon to be printed in the Chemical Journal "Phosphorus, Sulfur, and Silicon and the Related Elements."

Harry is survived by his wife Jacky, to whom he was married for 56 years, two sons, and two daughters.