John Tedder, 2nd Baron Tedder
Encyclopedia
John Michael Tedder, 2nd Baron Tedder, FRSE (July 4, 1926 – February 18, 1994), was the Purdie Professor of Chemistry at St. Andrews University, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

Early life and education

He was the second born son of Arthur William Tedder and Rosalinde Maclardy. His father had a military career in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

, that culminated in his becoming Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Marshal of the Royal Air Force is the highest rank in the Royal Air Force. In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff, and to retired Chiefs of the Air Staff, who were promoted to it on their last day of service. Promotions to the rank have ceased...

. As his father's military appointments involved frequent changes, the Tedder family's residences also shifted. He attended schools in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, Whitgift School
Whitgift School
Whitgift School is an independent day school educating approximately 1,400 boys aged 10 to 18 in South Croydon, London in a parkland site.- History and grounds :...

 (1934–36), Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

 in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 (1936–38), and Dauntsey's School
Dauntsey's School
Dauntsey's School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the village of West Lavington, Wiltshire, England. The School was founded in 1542, in accordance with the will of William Dauntesey, a master of the Worshipful Company of Mercers....

 in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

 (1938–44). He suffered with disabilities in his hearing and eyesight, and was rejected as a candidate for military service in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Tedder's early life was shaped by two significant tragedies. His older brother Dick was killed on active service in France in 1940. His mother, Rosalinde Tedder, died in January 1943 in an air crash in Egypt. His father was a witness to the air crash and was deeply affected by the death of his wife.

As Tedder was unfit to serve in military action he began his tertiary education in science. He studied at Magdalene College
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...

, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 for his undergraduate degree and owing to the impact of the family tragedies obtained very poor grades. He persisted and was awarded the B.A. in 1947. He received encouragement from some of his lecturers and went on to receive both an M.A. and Ph. D. at Magdalene College in 1951. He undertook post-doctoral studies at Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

 from 1952–53. He subsequently obtained the D.Sc. from the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

 in 1961, and the Sc. D. from the University of Cambridge.

Career

Tedder became a lecturer in chemistry at Sheffield University in 1955, and then was appointed to the Roscoe Chair in Chemistry at the University of Dundee
University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....

. He became Purdie Professor of Chemistry at St. Andrews University in 1969, and held the post until 1989. He then served as Emeritus Professor from 1989–1994.

Tedder became an authority on a number of topics within the field of chemistry, and was the author or co-author of some 200 technical essays, and several textbooks. One of his areas of expertise concerned organofluorine
Organofluorine
Organofluorine compounds are organic chemical compounds that contain carbon and fluorine bonded in the polarized and remarkably strong carbon–fluorine bond. Organofluorine compounds are diverse, they can be fluorocarbons, perfluorinated, or biologically synthesized mono-fluorinated compounds, among...

 chemistry, and he pioneered the use of gas-liquid chromatography
Chromatography
Chromatography is the collective term for a set of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures....

 at Sheffield University in the 1950s. He composed a number of technical papers on the reactivity of orthoquinones. He developed a two-stage ion-beam spectrometer
Spectrometer
A spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization...

. He was also recognized by his peers as an important authority in free radical chemistry.

In addition to his distinguished work in chemistry, Tedder succeeded his father as baron and served in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

. Although he was apparently reluctant to perpetuate the title, he was persuaded by colleagues that the peerage system could benefit by the presence of a scientist and educator. He served on the House of Lords Committee on Hazardous Waste, and contributed to discussions in the House about matters of science and tertiary education. He was also honored by his election to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...

.

Tedder was married to Peggy Eileen Growcott, and they were the parents of two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Robin John Tedder (born 1955), is now the 3rd Baron Tedder, while the younger is the virologist
Virology
Virology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents: their structure, classification and evolution, their ways to infect and exploit cells for virus reproduction, the diseases they cause, the techniques to isolate and culture them, and their use in research and therapy...

 Professor Richard Tedder
Richard Tedder
Professor the Hon. Richard Tedder FRCP is an English virologist and microbiologist, head of the Department of Virology at the University College London Medical School.-Life:...



Tedder maintained a lively interest in the Royal Air Force and attended many honorary functions related to the squadrons in which his father had served. He also followed in his father's steps in his deep reading about Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

, and had planned to write a book on Cromwell. Tedder was also interested in classical music and played the piano. Near the end of his life he developed Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

 (the same affliction from which his father died). He then developed Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...

, which forced him into retirement, and he was eventually placed in permanent nursing care until his death in 1994.

Obituaries

  • Tam Dalyell
    Tam Dalyell
    Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet , known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow.-Early life:...

    , Obituary: Lord Tedder, dated 24 February 1994, at independent.co.uk
  • Peter L. Paulson, http://www.rse.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/obits_alpha/tedder_john.pdf (pdf) at Royal Society
    Royal Society
    The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

     online

Relevant Biographical Data

  • See the biographical study of the 1st Baron Tedder (Arthur William Tedder) in Vincent Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command (London/Portland: Frank Cass Publishers, 2004). ISBN 0-7146-4817-5
  • Trinity College Library at the University of Cambridge holds in its archives correspondence between John Michael Tedder and Richard Laurence Millington Synge for the years 1967–1974.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK