Frances Micklethwait

Frances Mary Gore Micklethwait (1867 – 25 March 1950) was an English research chemist, among the first to study and seek an antidote to mustard gas during the First World War. She received an MBE for her top secret wartime work in chemical warfare, Biographies generally give 1868 as her year of birth, but this is disputed by official records. She was educated privately and then studied at the Swanley Horticultural College in Kent, which admitted women from 1897, when she was 30 years old. In 1898 Micklethwait joined the Royal College of Science (later Imperial College) and attained her degree, the Associateship of the Royal College of Science, in 1901.

Pre-war research at the Royal College of Science (now Imperial College) After obtaining her degree, Micklethwait 'carried out a substantial and varied series of researches' in the field of organic chemistry, a relatively new area of science that would be of major global importance. From 1901 to 1912 she worked mainly with Gilbert Thomas Morgan, during which she received a Beit Research Fellowship for the excellence of her work. At Imperial, Micklethwait worked alongside Martha Annie Whiteley, one of the inventors of tear gas.

Post-war research Micklethwait worked briefly for the Boots Pure Drug Co. and then returned to Swanley Horticultural College in 1921, becoming its Principal in 1922. She also worked on the Index for the revised edition of Thorpe's Dictionary of Applied Chemistry.

Associations 1920 – Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.