and mother of Oliver Zangwill. Ayrton married his second wife, Phoebe Sarah Marks, in 1885. She assisted him in his research and became known (as Hertha Ayrton) for her own scientific work on the electric arc and other subjects. In 1899, Ayrton supported Hertha on her way to being elected the first woman member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Royal Society awarded her a Hughes Medal in 1906. Their daughter Barbara Ayrton-Gould became a Labour MP; grandson Michael Ayrton was an artist and sculptor. Hertha and William Ayrton acted as guardians for artist and suffragette Ernestine Mills after the death of Mills' mother Emily "Mynie" Ernest Bell in 1893. (Her father, writer Thomas Evans Bell had died in 1887). Honours and awards He was elected president in 1892 of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1881 and awarded their Royal Medal in 1901. See also Henry Dyer John Milne Anglo-Japanese relations Ayrton shunt Notes References Graham Gooday's entry in the New Dictionary of National Biography published in September 2004. 1847 births 1908 deaths Scientists from London Alumni of University College London English expatriates in Japan English physicists Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-period Japan Foreign educators in Japan Burials at Brompton Cemetery English inventors Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at University College School Royal Medal winners Alumni of the University of Glasgow Presidents of the Physical Society English electrical engineers 19th-century British physicists 20th-century British physicists 19th-century British engineers 20th-century British engineers 19th-century English scientists 20th-century English scientists William