William Henry Perkin Jr., FRS FRSE (17 June 1860 – 17 September 1929) was an English organic chemist who was primarily known for his groundbreaking research work on the degradation of naturally occurring organic compounds. Early life He was the eldest son of Sir William Henry Perkin who had founded the aniline dye industry, and was born at Sudbury, England, close to his father's dyeworks at Greenford. His brother was Arthur George Perkin (1861–1937), Professor of Colour Chemistry and Dyeing at the University of Leeds. Perkin was educated at the City of London School and then at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, London, and then in Germany at the universities of Würzburg and Munich. At Munich, he was a doctoral student under Adolf von Baeyer. From 1883 to 1886, he held the position of Privatdozent at the University of Munich. He never lost contact with his friend Baeyer, and delivered the memorial lecture following Baeyer's death in 1917. In 1887 he returned to Britain and became professor of chemistry at Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, Scotland, for which the Chemistry wing of the main campus is currently named The William Perkin Building. Manchester In 1892 he accepted the chair of organic chemistry at Owens College, Manchester, England, succeeding Carl Schorlemmer, which he held until 1912. During this period his stimulating teaching and brilliant researches attracted students from all parts, and he formed at Manchester a school of organic chemistry famous throughout Europe. This was possible because he was assigned new laboratory buildings, which he planned together with the famous architect Alfred Waterhouse, similar to those built by Baeyer in Munich. The speech at the opening ceremony was given by Ludwig Mond. An additional laboratory building together with a library and £20,300, was a donation of the chemist and industrialist Edward Schunck in 1895. His laboratory was removed brick by brick and recreated at Owens College. Frank Lee Pyman, Robert Robinson (who later won a Nobel Prize in chemistry), Walter Haworth and Eduard Hope graduated at Owens College while Perkin was there. The conflict with Chaim Weizmann, who held a postdoctoral position and was a friend of Perkin, over the fermentation of starch to isoamyl alcohol which was the starting material for synthetic rubber and therefore industrially relevant, led to the dismissal of Weizmann. In 1912, following a planned change in University politics involving industrial co-operations, which would have resulted in