Elizabeth Percival

Ethel Elizabeth Percival, (3 January 1906 – 16 April 1997) was a British research chemist and expert in algae polysaccharides. Life She was born Ethel Elizabeth Kempson in Coventry on 3 January 1906, the daughter of Frank George Kempson, an engineer, and his wife Emily. She was educated locally and at Wolverhampton Girls School. She studied chemistry and botany at the University of Birmingham graduating with a BSc in 1928. She then became both secretary to Professor Norman Haworth and research assistant to the Chemistry Department. In 1934, following her marriage to Edmund Percival, she moved with him to the University of Edinburgh. Due to pressures on the Department in the Second World War she began lecturing in the academic year 1939/40. Edinburgh awarded her a doctorate (PhD) in 1942. Following her husband's death in 1951 she was made an official lecturer. She also began research at the Institute of Seaweed Research in Musselburgh, just east of Edinburgh. In 1952 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Her proposers were Edmund Hirst, Christina Miller, Mowbray Ritchie and Neil Campbell. The University of Edinburgh awarded her a second doctorate (DSc) in 1962.