ABSTRACT
On the first of January 1950, Edward Neville da Costa Andrade formally took up his position as Director of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory in the Royal Institution, as both Fullerian and Resident Professor of Chemistry and as Superintendent of the House. Andrade thus occupied the major positions of power that an employee of the Royal Institution could hold. This should have put him in a peculiarly strong position to lead the Royal Institution especially as he knew its workings well having been intimately connected with it since becoming a Member in 1924, the year after William Henry Bragg (whose Royal Society obituary he wrote 1 ) had been appointed to the positions which Andrade would later occupy. He had delivered the Christmas lectures in 1927–8 and again in 1943–4 as well as seven Friday Evening Discourses. Furthermore, he had been a Visitor and had served as Manager on and off for a total of seven years since 1935. He was a highly respected scientist (FRS 1935), had a strong track record as the author of a number of beautifully written books on popular science, a strong interest in the history of science and was also a collector of rare scientific books. In many ways in 1949 he must have seemed the ideal appointment. Yet just under two and half years later Andrade was forced to resign amidst the most acrimonious and public of rows, which would cost the Royal Institution £7000 in damages to Andrade, and would mark the institutional psyche for many years to come.
