Denis Henry Desty, 21 October 1923 - 18 January 1994

Abstract

Denis Desty was both a distinguished scientist and preeminently a great creative inventor. He was a man of vision who knew how to turn his visions into reality for he had an outstanding facility for solving real problems. He devised practical techniques for analytical hydrocarbon separations, combustion, gas-flares, the treatment of oil spills, and in a variety of other areas, many of which have had widespread application. There are nearly 500 patents associated with his name. For some he would be the most unforgettable character that they ever met. Denis Henry Desty was born in Southampton in 1923. He came, so he believed, from Huguenot stock and retained throughout his life a certain native Hampshire burr (which would remind some listeners of John Arlott). He was educated at Taunton’s School and later at Southampton University, under Professor N.K. Adam (one of the leading international authorities on surface chemistry). His studies for the honours degree in chemistry were interrupted by volunteer service in the RAF. Here he succeeded in persuading higher authorities to allow him to exchange routine for an opportunity to confuse the enemy with a series of phoney radio signals, and in Ambala he later had some success in teaching others to fly Spitfires. He joined British Petroleum in 1948 (after roaring up to Sunbury on his Ariel Square Four motorbike), and moved through a series of positions first as a Technologist, then Group Leader, Senior Chemist, and finally Senior Research Associate until his retirement through ill health in 1981. His own Special Projects Group was not, however, disbanded for another six years when many past and current members attended a suitable ‘wake’. In 1978 he was appointed Visiting Professor in the Engineering Department of Surrey University, where there is now a Desty laboratory which sets out to introduce undergraduates to some of the innovative combustion technology of the future. Between 1984 and 1986 he was also Visiting Professor in the Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology Department of Imperial College. He died in January 1994 after a long battle with cancer.