Mr John Kendall (Chemistry 1949)

Provided by Rosemary Kendall

John was born in 1924, the son of a chemist. He graduated in Chemistry in 1949, after four years in the army, and followed this with a one year diploma in leather chemistry at the University of Leeds. In 1950 we were married and John then started work at the ICI Dyestuffs division in Manchester. Six months later he joined Wades of Nottingham as their tannery chemist. In 1952 he went to Vollmann Brothers in Slough producing paints and varnishes. In 1953 he started work as a Principal Scientific Officer at the British Leather Manufacturers Research Association at Egham. This was followed in 1959 by eight years in Hull at Reckitt and Colman, firstly in Reckitt Colours and later as Head of the Packaging Department. In 1967 we moved back to Buckinghamshire and John joined J. Lyons as their Packaging Development Manager for two years. His final move was to the Woolwich Polytechnic in 1970 as the Industrial Liason Officer - a job he enjoyed more than any other - bringing consultancy work into the Polytechnic and recruiting new students. He was there until 1983 seeing Woolwich Polytechnic become Thames Polytechnic but retiring before it became the University of Greenwich.

As an antidote to his academic work, in 1971 we bought a farm in Kent and bred sheep, working early mornings, late evenings and weekends. John had an interesting and varied career but never lost sight of his scientific origins as a chemist. He was a keen fencer with epee and foil, a passionate enthusiast of vintage cars–owning and working on four or five, one after another.

He was a real ale man and brewed his own for many years. And he was a keen and able musician playing the flute when we lived in Hull and later the double bass in Kent. He is survived by his wife, four children and seven grandchildren.