Dr. C. A. Keane

Abstract

DR. CHARLES ALEXANDER KEANE, who died, at the age of sixty-seven years, on Sept. 18, had been identified for the last thirty years with the development of technical education in London. After studying at Manchester under Roscoe and at Erlangen under Otto Fischer, he served as lecturer and demonstrator in chemistry at Liverpool for fifteen years before coming to London to take up the post of first principal of the newly established Sir John Cass Technical Institute. This Institute was founded out of the increased revenues of the trust established by Sir John Cass (1661–1718) for the maintenance of a Foundation School for the children of the Ward of Portsoken. Appointed in 1901, almost a year before the opening of the new building in Jewry Street—now, in eloquent testimony of the success of his administration, undergoing extensive enlargement—Keane at once gained the confidence of the governors, and was able to determine from the very beginning the lines on which the Institute should develop. As soon as possible another building was provided for Sir John Cass's Day School, and all elementary teaching was given up in favour of more advanced work. Two chief principles were adopted: first, the encouragement of research among the teachers and senior students, and, secondly, close association with the industries of the district. In both these respects the Sir John Cass Institute has fulfilled the wishes of its promoters; a long list of original researches has been published from its laboratories, while its industrial classes, each controlled by a consultative committee representing its special subject, are a characteristic and flourishing feature of its work.