Edith Humphrey

Edith Ellen Humphrey (11 September 1875 – 25 February 1978) was a British inorganic chemist who carried out pioneering work in co-ordination chemistry at the University of Zurich under Alfred Werner. She is thought to be the first British woman to obtain a doctorate in chemistry.

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 8 April 1991, a sample of the original crystals synthesised by Humphrey for her PhD were sent to them by the Swiss Committee of Chemistry, together with a modern CD spectrum of a solution of one crystal. This box of crystals remains on display in the exhibition room of the RSC.

Edith Humphrey was the youngest of the seven surviving children of John Charles Humphrey (1833–1903), a clerk at the London Metropolitan Board of Works, and his wife Louisa (née Frost, 1831–1910), a teacher. John Humphrey had started life in poor circumstances, his father having been a bootmaker, and he was a great supporter of education for his daughters as well as his sons. Edith grew up in a middle-class household in Kentish Town, London. Her two elder sisters became teachers, and her brothers, including Herbert Alfred Humphrey (1868–1951), inventor of the Humphrey pump, and William Humphrey (1863–1898), head of the Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone, were educated to degree level.

Humphrey attended Camden School for Girls and then, from 1891, North London Collegiate School, one of the first girls' schools in the UK to include science in the curriculum. From 1893 to 1897 Humphrey studied chemistry (and physics) at Bedford College, London, with a scholarship of £60 per annum. On completion of her degree, she applied to do a PhD at the University of Zurich.

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