British Cotton Industry Research Association: Sir Robert Pickard, F.R.S

Abstract

SIR ROBEBT PICKARD has for so long been a figure in scientific and educational circles that his retirement, with the close of 1943, from the directorship of the British Cotton Industry Research Association marks something of an epoch. It is seventeen years since he was appointed to succeed the first director, Dr. Crossley, at the Shirley Institute, and all that time it has been his endeavour and pride to build it up until to-day it is the splendid organization that we know, with a staff of more than three hundred and fifty, including eighty graduates. The Cotton Research Association was Sir Robert's particular interest, the child that he brought to vigorous manhood, but he has been a champion of co-operative research associations in general, and it is a question whether any other man has done more for the movement. He was the first director of the British Leather Manufacturers' Research Association before he went to the Shirley, and he has served besides on the councils of two other research associations. It is good to learn that his retirement does not mean that his services to industrial research will be lost entirely, for, doubtless among other activities, he will still be retained as a consultant by both the Associations he has directed.