On the lecturing, there was, of course... well, I should also perhaps say that like Newcastle, Leeds had a tri-partite arrangement of three departments: inorganic and structural, physical, and organic. But there was a difference. Whereas in Newcastle the department was one department of chemistry, in Leeds each of the three departments was an independent department. The head of department had a seat on Senate, had all the perquisites of a head of department, and the three heads, between them, formed the School of Chemistry, and if there were things like services, technicians, lab space and so forth that could affect or impact more than one department, the three heads met. But it was three heads of independent departments.

Now that works if the three heads get on. It doesn’t work so well if they don’t. And it’s probably common knowledge that Harry Irving and Fred Dainton and Basil Lythgoe did not always agree eye-to-eye with things. And that was a limiting factor. And unbeknown to me, I had been brought in not only because I could do some good chemistry, but apparently people had judged that I might be a person who could meld this together into a good working relationship again.

And I can well remember the Registrar coming to me several months after my appointment, when I was down there saying, ‘What’s wrong with chemistry? You haven’t had a row yet’. And I said, ‘You’re not likely to hear one if we have got one, because it’ll be in-house’.