Peter Victor Danckwerts
| Peter Victor Danckwerts | |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 October 1916 Emsworth, England |
| Died | 25 October 1984 (aged 68) Cambridge, England |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve
|
| Rank | Sub-Lieutenant |
| Unit | HMS President |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |
George Cross Member of the Order of the British Empire |
| Other work |
Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge (1959–77) Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge |
Peter Victor Danckwerts GC, MBE, FRS (14 October 1916 – 25 October 1984) was awarded the George Cross in 1940 for "great gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty" while defusing enemy mines.
He later became Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge from 1959 to 1977 and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Danckwerts was the eldest of five children of Vice Admiral Victor Hilary Danckwerts and his wife Joyce Middleton. His grandfather was William Otto Adolph Julius Danckwerts, a noted barrister. He showed an early interest in chemistry, constructing his own laboratory in an attic at home counter to his family's history of naval and legal service. He was educated at Stubbington House School, Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a First in Chemistry in 1939.
Danckwerts was made a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve at the beginning of the Second World War, and was trained as a bomb disposal officer. In 1940 he was posted to the Port of London Authority as a bomb disposal officer, and received the George Cross for the "great gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty" he showed in defusing land mines dropped by the Luftwaffe on London.
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