Full name of worker at H.M. Factory Gretna (and any other names they are known by) : William Arthur Haward. 

Gender: Male. 

Date and Place of Birth: January 1894, Islington, London. 

Date and Place of Death: 6th December 1920, South Kensington, Middlesex, England. 

Nationality: British. 

 

Biography 

Childhood: He had a brother called Reginald Stanley Haward (1896-1982). 

Parents: Charles Arthur Haward (1869-1950) and Rebecca Rose Clark (19871-1924). 

Parent’s occupations: His father was an iron foundry manager. No job has been recorded for his mother. 

Schools / universities attended and years of attendance: Educated at Owen’s School, he passed the Intermediate Science Examination of London University before entering the Imperial College of Science and Technology, where he took the diploma of A.R.C.S., in the First Class in Chemistry, also graduating as B.Sc (Lond.) with First Class Honours. 

Also gained the diplomacy of the Imperial College, for advanced study and research in Chemical Technology, and later M.Sc (Lond.). 

Occupation: Chemist. He was also elected an associate an Associate of the Institute in 1918. 

Place of residence at Gretna: N/A. 

Job title at Gretna: Worked under the ministry of munitions. 

Marital status: Married to Florence M Climpson. September 1919. Islington, Middlesex. 

Children: He did not have children. 

Travels: N/A. 

Awards/recognitions: Between 1914 and 1916 he was engaged, with Professor Bone and Dr. R.V. Wheeler, on research of national importance, on the results of which he was awarded a Beit Fellowship. 

Trivia / any other information:  

He died from injuries sustained from an explosion at the Imperial College of Science and Technology. 

The verdict at the inquest into his death was ‘death by misadventure’. 

He was aged 26 when he died. 

He died in St. George’s Hospital. 

After working at HM Factory Gretna, he returned to Imperial College, where he held a Salters’ Fellowship, and had been engaged for two years on investigations into behaviours of gases under pressure when the explosion occurred which caused his death. 

I have also found some articles which he wrote, which I have included in the folder. These are on The Uniform Movement of Flame in Mixtures of Acetylene and Air (1917), The Propugation of Flame in Mixtures of Hydrogen and Air. The ‘Uniform Movement’ (1915) and Gaseous Combustion at High Pressures. Part II— The Explosion of Hydrogen-Air and Carbon Monoxide-Air Mixtures (1921). He worked on these in conjunction with other chemists. 

Institute of Chemistry 1918 part 2 : 

Haward, William Arthur, B.Sc. (Lond.), A.R.C.S., D.I.C., No. 2, Staff House, Eastriggs , Dunifriesshire. [ M. Research. ]