Taylor, Sir James

(1902-1994), mathematician and physicist

by John Martin

© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved

Taylor, Sir James (1902-1994), mathematician and physicist, was born at 11 Brunton Terrace, Sunderland, on 16 August 1902, the son of James Taylor, a stonemason, and his wife, Alice, née Hunter. Left an orphan at an early age he benefited from a cosmopolitan education, attending Bede College, Sunderland, Rutherford College, Newcastle upon Tyne (part of Durham University), and Cambridge, from where he graduated in 1923 with a first-class degree in physics followed by a PhD in 1925. In 1927 he gained a doctorate in physics and maths at Utrecht, followed in 1931 by a DSc at Durham. At the Cavendish laboratories, Cambridge, under J. J. Thomson and Lord Rutherford, and later at the University of Paris (the Sorbonne), he acquired a taste for research which was developed further when in 1928 he joined the Nobel division of ICI in Aberdeen. On 16 November 1929 he married Margaret Lennox Stewart (1904/5-1990); they had two sons and a daughter.

During the 1930s Taylor became a leading authority on explosives. With the outbreak of war he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was posted to the Admiralty where, under Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, he worked on the development of rockets and airborne torpedoes for the navy. At the end of the war he was appointed MBE, resuming his work at the Nobel division as research director. He became joint managing director in 1951 and joined ICI's main executive board in the following year, a position he retained until 1964. Between 1958 and 1964 he was responsible for decentralizing ICI metal interests and establishing three separate but co-ordinated subsidiary companies of which he was the chairman: Imperial Aluminium Company, Yorkshire Imperial Metals, and the Imperial Metal Industry Company. In 1959 Taylor's experience of explosives led to his appointment as the deputy chairman of the Royal Ordnance factories board, a position he retained until 1972. Between 1961 and 1964 he was also a member of the board of Nuclear Developments Ltd.

In 1962 Taylor joined the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) after presenting a series of three Cantor lectures, 'The modern chemical industry in Great Britain'. Two years later he was elected a member of the RSA council, becoming its chairman in 1969-71. During this period he contributed six major lectures which ranged from 'Arts, crafts, and technology' to 'The seventies and society'. They reflected his industrial and commercial experience together with his deep interest in the arts.

Taylor relinquished his close association with executive management in 1965 to become a member of the Ministry of Defence advisory committee on scientific research, and in the following year he joined the Advisory Council on Calibration and Measurement. In 1974 he was appointed chairman of Chloride Silent Power, which had the remit of developing a new form of battery for electric cars and vans. A prolific writer, he contributed to the Proceedings of the Royal Society, the Philosophical Magazine, the Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers, the British Association for the Advancement of Science Reports, and ICI Magazine.

Throughout his working life, which encompassed the period 1928 to 1985, Taylor's activities covered a wide variety of areas. He became a leading authority on explosives, mining techniques, metallurgical developments, and the nuclear industries. He made significant contributions in a variety of spheres ranging from explosives and rocket projectiles to improved metals for industry, nuclear research, electric propulsion, and the chemical industry. In all these activities he remained a leading exponent of the need for closer co-operation between the science and the arts. In addition to his appointment as MBE for his wartime work he was awarded a knighthood in 1966 for his services to the Royal Ordnance. He was also an honorary member of the Institution of Mining Engineers and was awarded the silver medal of the Chemical Society.

Taylor's hallmark characteristics were a sober enthusiasm and an agile mind. As a young man he had been a skilled rock climber, and in later years his interests turned to cooking and gardening. He was widely regarded as an energetic, approachable, and stimulating person who gave his time generously to many causes. Following his formal retirement he became a director of the Surrey Independent Hospital near his home at Seale. He and his wife celebrated their diamond wedding in 1989 shortly before Lady Taylor's death in the following year. He died of heart disease on 4 October 1994 at his home, Culvers, Littleworth Road, Seale, Farnham, Surrey.

JOHN MARTIN

Sources  
The Times (7 Nov 1994)
WWW
Daily Telegraph (26 Oct 1994)
b. cert.
m. cert.
d. cert.
CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1995)

Archives  
 FILM  BFI NFTVA  SOUND  BL NSA

Likenesses  
photograph, repro. in The Times, 21A

Wealth at death  
£1,307,923: probate, 12 Jan 1995, CGPLA Eng. & Wales


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