Charles Laurence Arcus
1914-2000

Son of Charles Robert Arcus and Gertrude Robinson, Charles was born in Leytonstone, London and brought up in Ramsgate, Kent. He had two younger siblings, Marion and Geoffrey. Their mother was a nurse, who trained at the London Hospital and she met her future husband when she was sent out to his ship to nurse him. His father was a ship's engineer who had sailed all over the world, though for a long time ran a ship repair business in Ramsgate. After a change in fortunes, the family moved back to London in 1931, living in East Ham, with Charles senior going back to sea before his untimely death in 1939.

Charles won a scholarship to Chatham House School in Ramsgate, where he completed his secondary education in 1931, shortly before the family move to London. He did well academically and achieved a distinction in his final year in Mathematics, though, oddly perhaps, not in Chemistry.

His first job was at Prices Patent Candle Company, Battersea as an analytic chemist, and he later worked at Shellhaven oil refinery on the Thames Estuary. He continued his education as a part time student at West Ham Polytechnic and received his BSc (First Class Hons.) in 1935 from London University. He then moved to Battersea Polytechnic, still part-time, where he studied under Joseph Kenyon, FRS, and in 1938 was awarded his PhD, also from London University. His PhD work concerned certain stereochemical aspects of reaction mechanisms, notably the Schmidt reaction and related areas.

After the PhD he worked at the Lister Institute with S.S. Zilva on ascorbic acid and later with Ida Smedley-Maclean on the structure of fatty acids. He spent the war in a reserved occupation, initially still at the Lister, then as a scientific evacuee, continuing with his Lister work, at the Molteno Institute, Cambridge. Later in the war he was working in Manchester and Huddersfield in a variety of roles for ICI. In 1946 he was appointed as lecturer at Battersea Polytechnic, progressing to Senior Lecturer in 1951, and became a Recognised Teacher for the University of London in 1954. In 1955 he was awarded a DSc and was later appointed Reader in Organic Chemistry.

Charles remained with Battersea Polytechnic when it became the University of Surrey and moved to new premises in Guildford. At work he put his energies into his own research and the careful nurturing of his research students, many of whom have gone on to distinguished chemical careers themselves. His own research centred on stereochemistry and related areas, and he later developed an interest in macromolecular reactivity, a relatively new field in the early 60s. He retired in 1979.

Apart from the war period, Charles continued living in East Ham with his family until 1951, when he moved to Ewell in East Surrey. In 1958, he married Christine Glasgow, a strong-minded, independent woman, whom he had met through geological walks with the London Natural History Society. She worked as secretary to the Director of the Geological Museum, and was 38 when she married. Mark Ladd recalls the following:

‘When he told us in the staff room, Stock said something like “Well Charles, why have you decided to get married now; we thought you were absolutely a confirmed batchelor”. The instant reply, in clipped Arcurian tones was “Well, I got so fed up with opening the garage doors every time I got home!”’

A daughter, Susan, was born in 1959, followed by a son, Matthew, in 1961. While the children were still very small, Christine developed cancer, against which she had a long and brave fight until her death in 1976. In 1969 the family moved to Greenhill Road, Farnham, and Charles commuted firstly to Battersea and then to Guildford, driving along the Hog's Back road each day.

As well as being an outstanding chemist, he had an extensive knowledge of other areas of science, and many deep and wide-ranging interests in other things, from naval architecture and indeed all aspects of ships and the sea, to German romantic philosophy and English non-conformism, as well as a great love of the arts, particularly ballet (partly because, in his own words, ‘nobody says anything’). He did not read novels much, but had a great admiration for the works of Stevie Smith. He was very interested in, and knowledgeable about, other lands and cultures, though he did not travel widely. He went abroad twice, once in 1947 to Paris for a few days with his colleague Ted Searle, and again, almost exactly 40 years later, to Amsterdam for a week with his son, where he found the food and general level of comfort more to his taste than on his previous foreign excursion.

After retirement, Charles remained in Farnham for some years, until moving into residential care in London and then Manchester. With family support and an excellent GP, Charles regained his independence and moved to Glossop, to the house next door to his daughter and grandchildren. This arrangement worked well for several years, until a series of falls and small strokes brought increasing frailty and a need for more support. Charles passed his last few years in a residential home in Glossop where he was greatly regarded by the staff for his wit and intelligence, despite his occasional obstinacy and cantankerousness. Although his physical health declined, he remained fully alert mentally – always interested in staff and family news, continuing to write poetry (a retirement interest, for which he had won a BBC prize in 1985) and working on a book, which he described as a ‘semi-autobiographical novel’.

In May 2000, Charles' health became much poorer, and after a brief period in hospital, he died on 25^th June. The family held a Quaker funeral – a celebration of his life, with spoken contributions from his friends and relatives. Everyone recalled his kindness, loyalty and sense of humour, but also the courage and strength he had shown in facing many darker periods during his life. He was held in deep affection by those who knew him, and continues to be missed.