Prof Thomas Percy Hilditch (1886-1965) held the first Campbell Brown Chair of Industrial Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in England.
He was a graduate of University College London and also studied in Jena, Germany, and Geneva. An outstanding authority on oils and fats, Hilditch's early interest centred on organic sulphur compounds, and he entered the field of fat chemistry by chance.
Hilditch joined the research laboratories of Joseph Crosfield and Sons Ltd in 1911, where he helped further develop the industrial application of the hydrogenated fats. He joined Liverpool University in 1926 and went on to establish an internationally renowned school of fat chemistry.
His research group at the University of Liverpool during the 1930s, 40s and 50s carried out many compositional analyses on a wide range of lipid substances using the most advanced techniques available at the time.
Prof Hilditch helped establish the Oils and Fats Group, now known as the Lipids Group. He was its inaugural Chairman and a formative influence in the extension of its activities. He was also closely associated with the Society's Liverpool Section (now the Liverpool and North West Regional Group) and served twice as its Chairman.
Image: National Portrait Gallery by Walter Stoneman (NPG x168305), Creative Commons