Roy Albert Frederick Hammond, OBE

Roy Albert Frederick Hammond O.B.E., B.Sc, A.R.C.S., F.R.I.C., was born November 19, 1901. He started work as an assistant analyst in Woolwich Arsenal in 1918. In 1919 he became assistant chemist in a firm of plywood and tinfoil manufacturers proceeding with a senior science scholarship of the London County Council to the Royal College of Science, London in 1924. He graduated with Honors in Chemistry in 1926 and was elected associate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry. On leaving the R.C.S. he was appointed to the Research Department, Woolwich (now The Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment of the Ministry of Defence - Army Department) and, soon after, was transferred to the Electrodeposition Branch. In 1950 he succeeded the late Arthur Hothersall as head of the Branch and retired in July 1963 after 37 years in the Government service during which he authored many papers on electrodeposition and related subjects.

His services to the Crown were recognized in the New Year Honors List for 1958 by his appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire which he received at the hands of Her Majesty the Queen.

In 1927 he joined the Institute of Metal Finishing in which he has been active in committee work since 1931, becoming the first chairman of the London Branch Committee in 1947 and president 1955-1957. He was chairman of the Technical Sub-Committee for the Sixth International Metal Finishing Conference held in London in May 1964.

He has visited the U.S.A. on three occasions prior to delivering the Blum Lecture on June 15, 1964 - in 1950 as secretary of the Metal Finishing Productivity Team, in 1953 on a Government Mission and in 1959 to present a paper at the Fifth International Conference in Detroit.