asked him to return to teaching there. But he did not find the conditions “at all congenial”, and so he secured an appointment in 1946 at the Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry under Professor (later Sir) Charles Dodds, where he worked on the proteolytic degradation of insulin. This work was not altogether successful, in part because of the great strides made by Sanger. So, in 1949, Butler moved to the Chester Beatty Research Institute in Chelsea, directed by Alexander Haddow. There were two main themes to his work at the Chester Beatty, one of which – on the proteins associated with DNA in the structure of chromosomes, the histones – is especially associated with Butler. Family In 1929 Butler married Margaret Lois Hope, a botanist and Cambridge graduate, at Haddington, East Lothian. They had three children, all successful in their respective fields of biological and medical sciences. From 1949 to 1977 the Butler’s lived in Rickmansworth in a house then known as Nightingale Corner, which had previously belonged to Hubert J. Foss, first Musical Editor (1923–1941) for Oxford University Press. Like the Fosses, the Butlers often entertained guests there. J. A. V. died on 16 July 1977 Awards He was awarded the Meldola Medal and Prize in 1928 by the Royal Institute of Chemistry. In 1956 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His candidacy citation read: Works The Chemical Elements and their Compounds (Macmillan, 1927) The Fundamentals of Chemical Thermodynamics (Macmillan, 1928) Man is a Microcosm (The Scientific Book Club, UK, 1950) Electrical Phenomena at Interfaces, in Chemistry, Physics and Biology (Methuen, 1951) Inside the Living Cell - some Secrets of Life (The Scientific Book Club, UK, 1957) Science and Human Life: Successes and Limitations (Pergamon, 1957) Gene Control in the Living Cell (Allen & Unwin, 1968) The Life Process (Allen & Unwin, 1970) Modern Biology and Its Human Implications (Hodder and Stoughton, 1976) References 1899 births 1977 deaths English physical chemists Electrochemists Fellows of the Royal Society